Sick Days

Dylan got a fever after church on Sunday.  He didn't eat anything after the sacrament.  That evening, on our way home from my mom's house, I had to hold a bowl for him so he could almost puke for a while and simultaneously driving on the curvy 102nd bridge.  I sometimes think there should be awards for necessary multi-tasking feats like that, like when I would not only wash, but rinse, condition, rinse, and shave while nursing a little baby.  I'd like to see a dad even think about holding a puke bowl while driving, much less the 102nd bridge. 

That's not the point of this post. 

It's about how long I could hold and stare at my sick babies. 

Dylan got to sleep on the couch, so Isaac wanted in on the percieved fun. 

Even crazy energetic Isaac fell right asleep when I turned off the lights. 

Then for nap time, they both felt all better, but promised they were still sick so they could sleep on the couch.  Can you believe they didn't even giggle?  They fell right asleep!  After jumping and flipping on those very couches minutes before! 

But then Isaac got sick on Tuesday evening.  I got this smile out of him, but he was also burning up. 

These are the faces I was getting. 

I could stare at his sweet cheeks and pet his soft hair all day and night.  I kissed him lots and lots, like I had for Dylan.  I knew there was a risk of getting sick myself, and although I can't afford to take any sick days (from any of my jobs), I sort of wanted to be able to really feel their pain. 

Isaac felt better the next day, but because he had hardly slept that sad night before, this is how I felt him while I was making a green smoothie.  (more on that later).  Dylan called in rather loudly, "is my sandwich and smoothie ready?  Isaac is sleeping."  Dylan was sitting right next to Isaac at the time.  Isaac was so out of it that he was asleep with his nose keeping him up and didn't care about loud tattle-tale Dylan next to him. 

My ISO was too high from the night before it looks like.  Oops. 

Dylan was sick at night, and was more sick and had me more worried.  I didn't take as many pictures of him.  When Dylan would try to puke, he would then almost cry, "it isn't working."  His tummy was empty.  He didin't want anything to eat or drink.  I'm so glad it didn't last long. 

Dylan had lots of energy when Isaac was sick, and vice versa.  Dylan plopped right next to/onto Isaac.  I like having them close.  I also like that I got to keep Dylan home from school on Monday without any stress just in case he felt sick.  The whole reason he got sick was probably from another working mom who took a gamble sending her son to school when he wasn't all the way better.  I like my sweet babies. 

And am glad they're all better now, sleeping in their own beds after a fun dat of Busch Gardens and a beach park today:)  Today wouldn't have been a good sick day.  We're so blessed!

key lime ice cream for Iron Man too!

Dylan was so messy eating his huge portion of coconut and chocolate soft serve from Orange Blossom Groves.  It was so funny because he didn't know what to do!  He just kept getting cleaned up then would scoot further away to a non-sticky part of the table.  The ice cream was to tall to start with, and it was so hot that it melted faster than he could eat it.  He didn't end up finishing it. 

Meanwhile, Isaac and Iron man were making out pretty well. 

We rinsed off in the pool. 

Then ate our grilled dinner. 

And that's a perfect summer afternoon/evening

my sweet and sour sweet little Isaac

I went to see Isaac on my lunch break today.  He was happy to see me, and a bit confused.  But he was soooo sad and mad when I left him to take his nap at Corrie's house! 

Then he was content and happy on Corrie's swingset and didn't want to leave when I was ready to take him home after work.  I asked him why he cried before and he said his cute usual " 'cuz . . . I had to."  Sometimes I ask who did something, and if it has to do with having an accident, he tells me that Noah did it and laughs b/c he knows he's funny.  But lately, he tells me "everybody did it."  He has a funny matter-of-fact way of telling me before he cracks himself up and throws himself all floppy like on the floor to roll around. 

We're potty training now.  He's doing amazingly well.  The secret is the potty treats jar with either fruit snacks or Skittles in it, and the fact that Noah is doing it full time with us too.  I started it on Monday because Corrie and I had talked about it before.  I texted her a picture of Noah on the potty.  He did really well his first day!  So did Isaac! 

Here's a picture to along with a previous post about Isaac and his tornado nap times.  I walked up to see him with his shorts and undies off.  He had an accident.  It wasn't a lot, but he got the stuff on his blanket and a pillow case - gross!  He has never done that before.  Oh, and clearly that was after he had emptied the shelves and the dresser drawer. 

I changed his dirty undies, removed the blanket and pillow and put him back in bed.  I came up minutes later to find this.  What a mess!  He only starts crying once he is startled by me finding him in his mess-making-madness. 

So there you have it.  The pictures to document some of his messes.  I am proud to say that I now have the video monitor set up in his room.  I showed him where it is and told him that I would be watching him.  He hasn't emptied any more shelves, dressers, or beds since! 

And look how happy he is when he goes in the potty all by himself.  I decided I should grab my little camera to take a picture of his success too. 

Here are some more little tidbits about Isaac:

He likes to pretend to pick of four noses, eyes, cheeks, chins, eyebrows, hair, ears, etc and he puts them in his mouth and makes the CUTEST pretend chewing faces.  We pretend like we need our noses back and try to take them back out of his mouth.  I think you have to be there, but trust me, he has the cutest little chewing mouth! 

He goes PP on the potty and poo poo on the grass.  Let me explain.  When we play outside, it's fine to pee in the grass, but I have found him more than once try to go #2 on the grass.  Now I know and cary him inside real quick.  At least he climbs out of the pool to do either one.  He really is potty trained now.  (Except for yesterday when he was feeling sick and he peed right on my lap when we were at the computer.  I know it surprised him so he held the rest back poor baby.) 

He still likes songs, music, and dancing.  He'll start to sing Old McDonald (which he sometimes starts singing when we pass McDonalds and he sometimes sings "Uncle Donalds" because of Malia), the 1st article fo faith, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. 

When he prays, he says it real fast and unless prompted to start with addressing his Heavenly Father, he will skip right to his regular "uh tan you Mommy an' Daddy uh uh uh Chris' amen."  That's the whole prayer, no Dylan.  Sometimes he'll repeat the Mommy and Daddy part a couple of times while he squirms around the coffee table. 

He can ridy a tricycle by himself now!  (pictures/video to come)

He likes to wiggle and squirm, but can sit in a movie and church. 

He still likes to cuddle in and lay his head on my shoulder. 

I love him! 

wordless wednesday

sleepy sweet 1 month old baby boy

more on my fishy face photography blog
Thanks for introducing me to this family Marcie, through giving them a gift cert!  (well, I knew Jeff, but it's been years.)

my boys under my purple tree

Have you ever loaded up your kids then

 hesitated to buckle them in? 

You look at one kid, then the other. 

They both just make silly faces back at you. 

You say "quick, jump out and go to the purple tree,

you're just TOO CUTE today!"

Then you go inside for the camera for a 60 second photo shoot because they had baths that day, are in a good mood, their clothes kind of coordinate for once, and you're not quite late yet. 

I ignore the fact that one has sunglasses on still and decide to use that to my advantage.  He looks up at the purple flowers that are raining down around us, and I see the reflection in Dylan's sunglasses.  I also see the flower pedals that lay on the grass and on the neighbor's driveway. 

I took this one w/ my pocket cam before sending them to the tree while I went in for the heavy cam.  It's so funny how Dylan poses, then Isaac looks at his big brother and is like monkey see, monkey do.

Ok, back to the car, "run babies, run, daddy's hungry!" 
We went to pick up Steven and had lunch at Bonnie's Tropical Smoothie Cafe, then we went in to Steven's office so all of the ladies could tell us how cute these two are:)  It's funny that I didn't take any photos of the events of the day, just a couple of my cutie baby boys before they got dirty again:)

other good moms of faith

I like reading blogs as a good way to procrastinate, and love that sometimes it motivates me to be better.  That just happened, so I'm going to link to it for you before I sift through today's under water photos.  My friend Marcie told me that I should read a blog, and today, that blogger linked to herself being interviewed here.  Phew!  Read it if you'd like:) 

Here's Shawni's intro:

Sarah has come up with the coolest idea: to interview mothers of different faiths and ask them questions about how their religious convictions help them to mother. She explains her purpose much better than I can:

"My goal is to interview fellow mothers/bloggers of different faiths and have a little window into each of their lives...and to see in the end, how we are all trying to achieve the same thing...to prepare faithful, loving, compassionate, children to go out into the world and lead productive, purposeful, meaningful lives.

"We are all more similar than we are different.

"Different doctrines, different traditions, different rituals, different beliefs, but our fears, our love for our families, and our hopes for our children are all so alike."

 
I love the scripture that tells me that all good things come from God. 
It's true! 
When I was still young and living at home, I would like to go to other friends' churches.  Our church promotes finding out for ourselves what is right, what is good, what is true, and to surround ourselves with it.  There are LOTS of good people out there, and it's fun when they happen to be members of my church.  But soooo many of my good friends don't go to my church.  It's more complicated now- to trade going to friends' churches with them since I have more responsibilities at church and with my kids, but I still like to do it.  (And I always welcome anyone who wants to come to church with me.)    Anyway, this is a different spin on it - that mothers want what's best for their kids - that's pretty much a universal truth.  And religion plays a huge factor in that.  I agree with the answers in the interview. (Shawni and I go to the same church and I like that she speaks more clearly than my scrambled thoughts.)

Why did I say yes to holding an alligator?!?!?!

everybody was doing it, so I said I would at the end.  It moved though, and I don't think I could have stopped it if it wanted to turn and snap at me!  So scary!

I didn't feed marshmallows to the gator that swam up to the building.  I was content stepping back taking pictures.

Did you see that kid getting the little gator to come up to him?!  He works there. 

We went on an airboat ride in the everglades.  Steven and I have always wanted to, so we drove down to Ft. Lauderdale.  Darren and Andre had played in a volleyball tournament that morning.  Steven and I didn't want to worry about a babysitter, 2 nights there, and paying for food and the hotel. 

Well in the morning at Dylan's tball game, my mom offered to babysit for the night.  Steven started thinking.  He was thinking that either we could stay home and clean the carpets, or we could drive 4 hours to hang out with our friends.  We didn't think much about it b/c we had a birthday party that afternoon. 

We flipped a coin, and listened to it:)

I made phone calls to cover my church responsibilities of the quartet practice, the home teachers, and sharing time.  And we grabbed swimsuits and loaded in the car!  My wallet was in the diaper bag, so I had to take my passport.  We really hand't planned this:)!!

Our airboat driver guide stopped along the way to show us some air plants, "ancient Seminole indian ruins", and to tell us stories.  He's a self proclaimed "a good ol' boy."  He was entertaining:)

His son is the youngest boat captain in florida.  He's on the yellow boat here. 

After we got to Ft. Lauderdale, it was almost 11pm.  Darren and Corrie were ready for bed, but thankfully Andre and Barbie still had energy! 

So those are our "randumb" photos from an spontaneous 20 hour vacation.  Oh, and Steven and I slept in our minivan b/c we didn't want to impose on our friends.  It was perfect with the windows down!

Marc's driving?!!!!!!

On Marc's birthday, he got his permit.  I let him drive my minivan.  He's so cautious that I didn't even think twice about it, but why's he so old now?!

This is us picking out a hula hoop and a singing "filet-o-fish" fish for him.

good thoughts

Lacey posted this, then so did a couple of other facebook friends (they don't know each other). I follow the nie nie blog myself - though not daily b/c i don't do many things every single day besides eat, kiss my boys, and help make messes.
anyway, if you have 8 or so minutes, watch this. i finally did and i like it.

a photo to drool over, j/k

lindsay,
i know you're waiting for your photos, so this is just a dirty trick, but it's just so funny:)

sorry, go to my other blog's post for 2 good ones.  i'll go through more tonight after we go swimming.  are you coming over?

Isaac + 2 years old = my mess maker

"Mess Maker,

Mess Maker,

Make me a mess,

Find me a dump,

Catch me some clutter."

Isaac was my "grip" for a friend's photo shoot the other day.  Here are some quick pics from before my friend got there.  Isaac is always so determined, and I think he's always thinking of the next creative mess he can get into. 

He's sneeky.

And always getting into things he shouldn't, like when he colored on my friend's walls with markers.  She had me take the kids outside when I got there so she could touch up paint over what wouldn't clean off. 

He plays hard and isn't afraid to get dirty (or sandy).

Shoes aren't needed. 

Neither are pants. 

When it's nap time, watch out.  That's when the real messes begin.  I was so angry with not only Isaac for his beautiful mess this day, but I was angry with Dylan.  Dylan came in and said "Mom, look at what Isaac did," and Dylan was laughing. 

It was a rude awakening to me. (I was the only one who took a little nap.)  Isaac came in my bedroom with what I looked like mango paste.  It was Bag Balm.  All over his hair, smeared onto his shirt, massaged into his arms and legs, and onto other things in the room. 

I officially gave Dylan the "you're the big brother and should have known better" lecture.  I threw some things away.  They both cried.  I wanted to.  The dresser drawers were emptied, the changing table things were on the floor, the crib bedding I want to sell on ebay was dumped out and was on the floor, all of the diapers were scattered on the floor, all of their bedding was on the floor, all of the pull ups were on the floor, all of the books were off of the book shelves, their transformer wall clings were on the floor.  I couldn't believe they hadn't napped, and I slept through this tornado! 

Today, at nap time, Steven went up there (I told him it's Mother's Day, so he should go), he caught Isaac up on the changing table tasting some sort of butt paste or lotion. He brought him carefully down to me so I could change his smelly undies. Gee thanks. As I was wiping his cute little tushy, he smiled up at me and said "Happy Mother's Day!"

Oh, and I finally got that goop out of his hair after the baseball game that my mom and Don took us to on the 6th shampooing.  Dish soap worked as suggested by MY wonderful mom.

I washed it along with Isaac's cupcake face after Dylan's morning Tball game the next day. 
Happy Mother's Day!
Oh, these photos happened over the past 2 weeks or so, but I don't seem to have the time to post here much.  I'm taking this day for me b/c I decided to not "work" on Sunday.  It's dificult because I have 2 photos sessions backed up and I really want to go through them.  I decided I have pleanty of other things to do, so I'll do a bit of my own blogging for the day!