Baby Ogling

o·gle   /ˈoʊgəl/ [oh-guhl]
verb, o·gled, o·gling, noun

–verb (used with object)
1. to look at amorously, flirtatiously, or impertinently.
2. to eye; look or stare at.

–verb (used without object)
3. to look amorously, flirtatiously, or impertinently.
4. to look or stare.

–noun
5. an amorous, flirtatious, or impertinent glance or stare.



Ok, now that we've gotten that bit of information out of the way...



I can't help it. I just stare at her all day long. 90% of my day is staring at this beautiful baby. When the older 2 kids are home, I just want them to stay inside the house so that I can stare at the baby and then look at them and then stare back at the baby. I am mesmerized by my own children!!!



I love them. It's as simple as that--and, yet, so much more complicated.



My firstborn is a miracle. I was told at 17 that if I ever got pregnant it would take much effort. How surprised was I when, three months into my marriage, that EPT stick ended up having a plus sign in the window? My entire pregnancy with her was textbook perfect. So was she. I spent about 90% of my day staring into her face, marveling at the wonder of who she is. I still marvel at that.



Ryan is also a miracle. I didn't take my prenatal vitamins regularly at all with him. In fact, I didn't even start taking them with him until the pregnancy was more than halfway along; I was too sick to even try stomaching those horse pills. I found out later that I have a Folic Acid deficiency. The fact that Ryan got here healthy and whole is amazing! Amazing? No... Miraculous!



And then came the miscarriages... I don't even want to go into that today. I just want to marvel at the children I can hold!



And then came Elliana. It's like starting all over again. We've had the older kids out of diapers for so long that I was afraid I'd forgotten how to dress a baby. But, who knew? It's like riding a bike! It's also all new again, too. How is that possible? For something to feel so "old hat", yet feel all new? I don't know, but I'm certainly not complaining.



In the meantime, I've gone on long enough about the wonder of my children. The internet has become my journal, apparently. Especially when I'm feeling mushy. Oh, look at that: It must be time to ogle at the baby again!

Potty Mouth...?

Ryan is playing in the tub. All of a sudden, I hear a big splash and Ryan hollers something that sounded rather profane. It sounded like a word that I am certain he has never heard in this house.

When he said it a second time, I almost got up--until I heard him holler "Nemo! Get out of there! You stupid FISH!" Oh, "fish". Whew! Not that other word that rhymes with witch. I don't even care that he's using the word "stupid" anymore. As long as it's not THAT word!

Tooth Fairy Debacle

I can't believe it! Aurora came home from school yesterday with a lost tooth. She had one of those neat tooth necklaces they give out to store the tooth in.

When she was putting it in her special Tooth Fairy Pillow last night, she asked me how the Tooth Fairy knew she had lost a tooth. I told her I wasn't sure, and that the Tooth Fairy could probably smell teeth.

...What? Give me a break here! I was thinking on my feet.

Lo and behold, the Tooth Fairy didn't show up last night. She completely forgot about my oldest daughter's lost tooth with all the other teething issues going on in this house! (Ellie was incredibly fussy last night. When she finally fell asleep, I was so happy to go up to my bed!)

When Aurora went to check her Tooth Fairy pillow this morning, my stomach dropped. Thinking quickly again, trying to subdue Aurora's disappointment, I said maybe the Tooth Fairy couldn't smell the tooth in the plastic necklace. We're going to try again tonight. I'm pretty sure the Tooth Fairy won't forget this time! In fact, I expect Aurora will receive a Gold Dollar coin.

The ideas that have come about on how to explain the Tooth Fairy's missed appointment have been quite interesting. Aurora's teacher blamed it on the barometric pressure and temperature drop; everyone knows her wings won't work in this weather. Facebook explanations have been as varied as "She had to pawn her wings due to budget cuts", "Baseball season knocks out a lot of teeth", she had "Too many stops last night" and "Allergy season". You are all so creative!

What's the best explanation your parents gave you when you were growing up?

Murphy's Law

You know what I mean. "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." We've all had days like this. It's not always big things that go wrong. Sometimes it's just a whole bunch of little things that add up. It's enough to discourage you and cause you to think "This is the worst day--EVER!!!"

Today has been one of those days. Right now, I'm thinking to myself "I think I would like to go back to bed and start this day fresh."

Before we even left for church this morning, things were starting to run amok. My baby girl, who is the best burper ever, refused to give me a good burp. As soon as I placed her in her carseat--with all the straps fully buckled, of course--she spit up half the contents of her stomach. Rob and the kids were already in the van (kind of Rob's way of saying LET'S GO!). So, I took her to church with a wet shirt front. Not a big deal, right?

I also forgot the checkbook. We were supposed to buy tickets to the Spring Banquet. I can write the check at home and bring it tonight to the evening service. Not a big deal, right?

Then, as we were leaving after the church service , Rob decided to ask Aurora to take a few things out to the van. In her defense, she'd never been asked something like this before. Usually, we all pile out to the van together; she has never been given keys to lock or unlock the doors. There's an obvious reason for this: She locked both our sets of keys in the van! My set of keys was on the diaper bag she was asked to take out to the van. Rob gave her his keys to do the task. We had to call a locksmith to pop open our locks. That's $40 we'll never see again. *sigh* This one was kind of a big deal. Not the end of the world, though.

We had been home from church for a short period of time; long enough to feed the kids lunch. There was a knock on the front door. Remember that fence I was telling you about in my recent post? Our neighbors who share that fence with us are tired of looking at that eyesore. They want to replace it soon and are willing to share the cost with us. It's awesome that they are willing to do that! We can't afford the whole durn thing. However, God is going to have to provide for this one because I just don't know how we're going to do it. This one was kind of a big deal, too. Again, not the end of the world, though.

While the neighbor was talking to Rob on the front porch, I kept hearing a buzzing sound in the window. Upon investigation, I found a bee. In my house! Yipe! I put the baby in her crib and became the Ultimate Bee Hunter. I did get some revenge on Rob for all the times he has killed a bug and then shoved it in my face while screaming "Aaah!". He has freaked me out on many occasions and I took this opportunity to return the favor. I got him good, too!!! So, see? No big deal, right?

I really didn't have any problem with the way today has been going until: Murphy's Law affected my baby! That's just plain low. Ellie has really been responsive to her Winnie the Pooh mobile. She loves it! She will follow the characters while smiling and cooing at them. I wound it up before I killed the bee. When I went to pick her up from her crib after the bee was properly disposed of, I realized that I never heard the music begin. Her mobile winder wouldn't wind anymore! Talk about the straw that broke the camel's back. I just wanted to cry.

It's now 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I am waiting for the next step of Murphy's Law to jump out and bite me in the rear. *sigh* I haven't even had lunch yet. No big deal, right?

*Edited to add: at 3 p.m. I broke my favorite "Count Your Blessings" spoonrest. Does anyone else see the irony in that?

Why I Can't Have Anything Nice

I am dreaming of apartment living today. Back when we had no worries, no dogs, and no upkeep. Yes, I would much rather live in an apartment today.

We have been nursing our back fence for years, hoping it will last until the van is paid for in 2012. We've been patching it up and handling it with kid gloves. I'm just so sure that one of these storms is going to take this whole thing down. This fence has survived the ice storm in Dec 2007, the hail storm April 2008, various 40mph wind storms and tornado watches and warnings. However, it couldn't hold its own against an 8 year old girl.

That's right. Aurora took 3 planks out of this fence yesterday. I didn't notice it until I woke up this morning. Needless to say, I was livid! We have 2 dogs and they need to stay in our backyard. I told her she was NOT going to pull any more planks off, or we were going to make her pay for the replacement boards. I'm thinking about making her pay for at least a percentage of the cost. Little Stinker! I don't know why she gets these destructive motives in her head. What is it about things that she thinks she needs to tear it apart? I remember being a kid and wanting to build things. When I saw broken things, I wanted to fix them, not tear them down!

I've known about her Boppy for many months now. She decided one day that she didn't want her Boppy to have any more tags on it. No problem, right? Except the Boppy's tags are sewn into it! She pulled the tags off, which left a gaping hole in the side! I've made her live with it, since she obviously put a lot of effort into ripping the tags off. I mean, I can barely get those plastic tags off shirts--you know, the ones that fall off anyway after you wash and dry them 5 times? I have NEVER been able to get cloth tags pulled off anything. How does she do it? I am going to patch this hole up and put away her Boppy. It was the pillow I used when she was an infant and I'd like to say I'll hold onto it forever, but chances are I won't. In the meantime, it is worth it to patch it up. Fluff is falling out all over the place.

Upon inspecting the backyard, I noticed some other damages made by someone. I don't know who did this, but SOMEBODY has been peeling paint off the siding. The alleged culprit started with a hail mark, smaller than the size of a rice grain and began pulling the paint right off, one tiny piece at a time. All the paint chips are on the ground below the picture. For time and interest's sake, I saved you all from one more photo. *sigh*

And, then there are the dogs. I have many photos from all over the yard that look just like this one. It all started a few months ago with Salty digging for moles. We had moles in our yard and he would root around under the ground and get them. I don't know what ever happened to them, but shortly after he started digging for them, they disappeared. Good dog, right? Well, it was good until Sassy came along! My mom warned us that Sassy was a digger. I had no idea how serious she was! These dogs have come into the house with mud all over their paws and whiskers. I have tried to discourage it by giving them both baths immediately and saying no digging the whole time I'm spraying their faces with the shower head. It doesn't seem to be very effective. Their biggest hole is a foot deep and right next to our foundation.

See the photo at right:

Every time things like this happen, on top of all the other woes this house brings upon us (leaky chimneys, a potential sagging foundation, insufficient heating and air conditioning, water in the duct work, etc.), these little things are bugging me today. The one area of the house that we really didn't need to pay much attention to--the backyard--is now being destroyed. And, not by the elements. I can't blame Oklahoma for these things, can I? *sigh*

Busy Day at the Zoo

Wow! We have had such an exciting day! First off, I bought an annual membership to the zoo. Online. Yes, I am that awesome! So, we decided that today was the perfect day for me to pack up all 3 kids and head for an outing.

Of course, we didn't get to the zoo until right at 3 p.m. It closes at 5. More on that later...

As I was getting everything sorted out and paid for online, I sent the older 2 kids and the dogs outside. They were out there for probably about an hour. Now, Aurora had come in and told me something about how she knew where the dogs were getting the red-colored dirt in their whiskers. Over the past week or so, they would come in with very Scottish-looking, previously white whiskers. I didn't pay much attention to WHY she was telling me, though. I just kind of shrugged it off, thinking she had found the dirt. Poor Aurora. She was trying to tell me something.

When I called the kids inside to eat before we left, I saw the dogs. Their paws and whiskers were caked with dirt--wet dirt, at that! Aargh!!!! I had just given those pups a bath yesterday! We were practically all packed up for the zoo and I didn't want to have to waste more time bathing the dogs before we left. So, I went upstairs and told Rob to leave the dogs outside until I got home. He gladly obliged; the thought of NOT meeting Sassy and her toe licks on the stairs made him happy.

So, the kids and I left for the zoo. When we got there, parking was crazy! People were parked on the grass outside of the parking lot. There was a place with good parking spaces, but it cost $5 to get in there. If I had brought some cash, I would have gladly paid for those spots. However, as I was driving around, a truck was backing out of a spot fairly close to the gate. What luck! (On St. Patrick's Day, no less.)

We were able to just scoot on in with our membership pass, which was wonderful! Ellie had never been to the zoo before--which I'm sure surprises you all, right? I mean, how many 2 month old babies have been to the zoo before? *severe eye roll at my own expense* I think I got more photos of Ellie smiling in her stroller than I did of any animals. I got lots of pictures of the kids in the petting zoo area, though, so that offsets it. We did all the fun things that we wanted to: the children's petting area, the rainforest room, the elephant exhibit, and the koi pond. Everyone was pretty exhausted by the time 4:30 rolled around, so I said "Let's go to the Gift Shop and then go home." Apparently, that was everybody else's idea, too! I could barely get the kids in there, much less me and a stroller! I'm pretty sure the Fire Marshall would have had a cardiac in regards to the number of people in that store! We left without getting to look at very much.

I had to feed Ellie in the van before we left. The kids thought that was pretty neat. It was like camping, they said. We really need to show them what camping really is! Once Ellie's belly was full, we headed home. Where I knew there were 2 crusty dogs waiting for their baths. That was the first thing I did. Neither one of them appreciated it, but I really didn't care! It's not ideal for me to give them a bath 2 days in a row. Now I have to clean the tub out again!

On top of the zoo, bathing dogs and feeding babies, I have also been doing laundry and continuing my Spring Cleaning today. I need to get the vacuum out and go over the downstairs with it. As you can probably imagine, I'm tired. Hence, my rambling in this post instead of doing what I should. *sigh* I think I'll wait to vacuum until after the kids are in bed tonight. After all, they contribute to the mess almost as much as the dogs do!

I seem to think there is something else I did today that was noteworthy. And, no, my showering is not it, although I was so glad to be able to wash my hair!

Who Are You & What Have You Done With My Daughter

A week ago, Aurora started getting sick. She felt miserable and was quite miserable to deal with, too. She's not usually so hard to deal with, but circumstances were working against her.

Now, as I have stated in previous posts, she IS a bear to deal with in the mornings, but that usually fades away after she has finally woken up. I constantly wonder how young is too young to introduce caffeine...? But, that is neither here nor there.

The last 3 days have been so challenging to our relationship. I don't know if it has something to do with Daddy being out of the house so much, due to his inventory. Whatever her deal is, it needs to come to a screeching halt!

Friday night went ok. She refused to eat her pizza. That's to be expected. She always does that. I just sent her to bed. Easy enough, right? I mean, she was incredibly tired and needed that sleep anyway.

Saturday was a completely different story. She woke up with all her resentment from being sent to bed the night before. I constantly tell Ryan to leave her alone in the mornings. He doesn't understand why she doesn't wake up like he does: happy to take on the day. After all, we teach our children that this is the day the LORD has made, let's rejoice and be glad in it. For whatever reason, Aurora doesn't want to adhere to that tenet of our faith. I had to send Ryan to his room Saturday morning because he absolutely would NOT leave her alone. He was being quite pesky.

Once they were separated, I spoke to Aurora about her behavior and how she needed to show the Fruit of the Spirit of the Living God--who she confessed, was baptized in the name of and now dwells in her heart. The huff that came out of her mouth during that conversation was something out of a sitcom. I told her to go get dressed and she left the room, slamming the door. *sigh* That got a spanking. She left and slammed the door again (which got her a second spanking), screaming about how I'm such a mean mommy and I just don't understand. She's right, I am mean and I don't understand. I didn't understand why she feels the need to scream all the time. She screams at her brother and at me. Sometimes she even screams at her daddy. That needs to come to a halt.

She woke up in a similar mood Sunday morning. Sunday kind of went the same way. She'd scream, I'd correct the behavior. She'd scream again, I'd remind her of why her behavior is wrong. It's like playing a recording over and over. I never get an apology, just excuses as to why she should be allowed to behave the way she wants. I feel so inadequate.

Today, Monday, she woke up with the same bad attitude. At this point, I'm trying to come up with ways to avoid her completely. Discipline isn't working. It's as if she truly enjoys behaving like a brat. I know what you're thinking: She's my payback from my behavior as a child. My mother swears up and down that I never behaved like that. Rob's mom also says that he did not behave like that, either. So, Aurora is just her own person. I don't know where it came from. Could it just have been pre-loaded into her from conception? We may never know.

In the meantime, I just want my kind, loving daughter back. This screaming meanie is foreign to me. My facebook status today:

FOR SALE: 8yo Girl. Cheap. Comes pre-loaded with GoodReader 2.0, PottyTrainer 2005. Needs upgrade to Attitude Adjustment 3.2 No Refunds or Exchanges.

Ryan's Thinking Again

In our school district, school starts later on Fridays than any other day of the week. I love that, by the way. It leaves more time for sleeping. This morning, however, Ryan must have gotten plenty of sleep. His synapses were firing at quite a swift pace.

I had to get Ellie dressed before we left for school. Before I could do that, though, I had to make sure that both the older kids were getting ready. I made my rounds: First, Ryan's room to remind him that it's not time to play; we do that after school. He still needed to get dressed. Then, I had to make my way into Aurora's room, which I dread each morning. Of course, she was not out of bed yet. I had to gently wake her up. We have a saying "Don't wake the bear". Aurora is a bear if you don't wake her gently. I told her to get dressed, as well.

While I was in Ellie's room getting her dressed, Ryan was talking to me from his bedroom. Sometimes that boy comes up with some whoppers. Here's today's:

"I was upstairs with you and we weren't ready for school yet. If you had 100 kids, you would tell them all to get dressed. You'd have to have a GIANT house. Wouldn't that be weird?"

Whaaa...?

2000 Page Views!

Good golly! For being a nobody housewife, I sure have had a lot of people reading this blog! Thank you for validating my narcissistic behavior here!

Obviously, I think my family is awesome and I hope you find us to be just as quirky and entertaining!

Baby's On/Off Button

I think Ellie has a button on her back. I can't find where it is, but apparently her crib and her bassinet hit it perfectly every time I lay her down. I have tried laying her down long-ways and sideways in both. No matter which direction I lay her down, she wakes up immediately. That darn button turns on and she is awake and wants to be held again. It's interesting, because when we put her in her swing (which is upstairs in our bedroom and not downstairs in the living room) she does not immediately wake up. But, all the warnings on the swing say not to allow baby to sleep in it for long periods of time... *sigh*

March of Dimes suggests laying baby on her back to sleep, but that button is in the way. I can't lay her on her stomach. If anything were to happen (like SIDS), I would never forgive myself. I need to find that On/Off button and disable it. In the meantime, she's just going to have to fuss. I've got to feed the kids and she's just going to have to lay in her bassinet.

Taking a Sick Day

Taking a sick day sure means something completely different in a house full of kids. It requires a certain Mommy finesse I don't think I've quite mastered just yet. Quarantines are in effect, with the sick child banished to his/her room--and nobody is allowed to touch the baby except me. I make my rounds like a nurse in a hospital, washing my hands in-between patient visits. Medicines are administered as needed, via Dr. Mom's orders. It's kind of exciting, in a really sad and demented way...

Rob woke up on Monday morning to take the kids to school for me. He does that quite frequently on his days off to allow me and Ellie to sleep in. Love that man. Aurora woke up with her usual morning huff and decided she was going to give her Daddy a hard time. Now, this would alarm many other people, but not us. She's like that just about every morning. And, just about every morning, she wakes up saying she doesn't feel well. She's not hungry and she doesn't want to brush her hair and she doesn't want to get dressed--and she doesn't want to be awake, for that matter! Talk about the girl who cried wolf. With great patience, Rob got the kids dressed and fed and off to school.

When he got home from dropping them off, he came upstairs and crawled back into bed with me and the baby. We were going to enjoy a lazy morning together. That is, until the phone rang. It was the kid's elementary school. Aurora had already been sent to the nurse's office. Fifteen minutes into the school day and I was going to pick my daughter up. Apparently, she had a fever. Rob would not have been able to detect this. I think only Mommies have that keen wrist thermometer. Remember back to what I said about her morning rituals, though? She wakes up snarling most mornings. How was Daddy supposed to know she was that sick? I brought her home and she went back to bed--quite gratefully, I might add.

Then, last night her fever spiked above 103° F. She was miserable! I gave her tylenol and it broke the fever, but she was still pretty worn out. She did finally get a good night's sleep, which is more than I can say for her brother. Ryan came into our room sometime in the middle of the night complaining about his ear hurting. He rarely ever complains about things in the middle of the night, so we took him seriously, giving him some pain medicine and trying to get him comfortable. He did, eventually, go back to sleep.

When we all woke up this morning, both older kids were still complaining about their ailments. I made the executive decision to keep them home from school today to get some rest. I'm still not sure if Ryan has an ear infection. He doesn't have a temperature and he's acting like his normal self. We'll see how he does tonight. If neither of the kids feel better by morning, we're off to the doctor's office.

The worst part of all this: Tomorrow is Aurora's birthday. The school requires we keep the kids home until they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours. Because her fever is still lingering, she has to miss out on her in-class cupcake party. We're going to try to make the best of it for her tomorrow, though. It's awful being sick on your birthday--whether you're a kid or an adult!

While typing this post, I finally got the baby to sleep. Time to make my rounds!

A Little Personality

Ellie is now 2 months old! I can hardly believe it. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess! And we are certainly having a blast! I have always loved everything to do with babies--all the shopping, the little bitty clothes, the gear, even diaper changes!

My favorite thing, lately, has been getting to see Ellie's personality come out. She's quite the character. She absolutely despises tummy time. I put her on her tummy every day and she will just lay there and let me have it! Finally, after much fussing and carrying on, she has kicked her legs hard enough to roll over from her belly to her back. As soon as she is on her back, she stops fussing and is a happy, contented baby again. She will look up at the ceiling fan (because we have one in every room of this house). Ellie loves the ceiling fans. In fact, the ceiling fan in her room was the recipient of her first smile!

Which leads me to my favorite thing about her right now: her smiles. They just seem to take over her whole body. They start with her face and then it seems as though her head is overwhelmed with the weight of the smile--her neck turns and her whole head bobs with glee! She can light up a room with just a simple smile. Members of the family will run from another area of the house just to experience her cheesy grin.

Just as fascinating is her fussing. Ellie feels it obligatory to fuss a couple times a day. Just because. She doesn't really need to fuss... I think she knows it's just something babies do and so she makes sure we get to experience this little part of babyhood. Just this afternoon, she was sitting with me and we were staring at one another, making faces. She was all smiles and happiness. All of a sudden, her face went dark and she started fussing. Rather half-heartedly, I might add. She looked around and fussed once. Before I could even do anything to "make it all better", she looked to her right, gave one last half-hearted "Waah!" and then turned and smiled back at me.

Now, I don't know what that was all about, but I do know one thing: She is going to be an interesting individual. I can't wait to see her grow and learn her personality. Getting to know both my other 2 was exciting and challenging all at the same time. I'm not expecting anything other from this newest addition to our family.