Donations

So, I received this email from a lady whose daughter is in BabyP's class. If you guys are interested in donating, drop me a line.

Dear Friends,

As you may or may not know my family and I will be traveling home to Cameroon in May to visit friends and family. I am in the process of collecting clothes, toys and shoes for 85 orphans who live in an orphanage about a mile from my parents’ home.

If you can imagine an orphanage in Africa, this is it. This institution is run by a woman who started it out of the kindness of her heart and runs it with very meager resources. The children have very little by way of food, clothes, books, toys. They are aged are as follows (approximately):

10 kids under 2 years

30 kids aged 2-10 years

40 kids ages 10-18 years

5 kids aged over 18 years

There are 4 adults traveling so we have a weight allowance of about 400lbs, which means we can carry lots of stuff! If you have any things you would like to give away or know someone who has things to give away I would greatly, greatly appreciate it, as will the kids.

There seems to be a lot of older kids so I went to Target to look at activities for them. Do you know how hard it is to buy for teenagers?! I am not looking forward to that stage.

Breast Cancer Awareness

I don't know how common this is, but I sure didn't know about it.

Still Screaming

There is still screaming, but this time, it is peanut. She has lost all resemblance of manners this evening. She is getting very demanding and frankly rude. So, tonight, when I turned off the TV, she had a fit. She wouldn't stop crying, so she lost a story. She kept having a fit and telling me she didn't want one story, she wanted two. Fine enough... She got no stories. Now she is having a monster meltdown.

Thank God it is Sunday. I wonder if it is too early to take the kids to daycare.

I am feeling under the weather this weekend. Mr. T. worked yesterday. It was cold and windy, but that didn't stop me from dragging the kids down to the river to wear them out. (I will go to great lengths to get a good nap). Peanut rode her bike while I ran along side her with the stroller. She is getting to be a very good rider. She rode maybe 1.5 miles. She would have ridden longer, but the wind was biting as we made our way back to the car. She crawled inside the stroller to yell at her brother for touching her things and maybe for little protection from the wind.

We went to Fort Worth this last week. I had a regional conference there. The service at the hotel (Omni) we stayed at was excellent. They had a 6 inch deep pool and a little backpack for peanut full of kid's things. My mom went with me to stay with the kids while I "worked". She seemed to have a good time. Peanut seems to be a great cure for insomnia because after sleeping with her for two nights, my mom went straight to sleep and slept well into the morning.

Peanut is still screaming. I am going to check on her again. I don't want to because my head hurts, and I really just want to eat my ice cream.

It only took about 5 minutes to coax her to sleep. She is so tired. While I was holding her I saw her little wrist and thought about how it used to have a line across it from fat. Now her hands are large and thin like mine. It is hard sometime to see these beautiful creatures grow up.

She is really into me telling her stories lately. I tell her stories about this and that, but generally she wants the story to involve Cinderella. I think she has a girl crush on her. My stories always talk about how Peanut is smarter and pretty than Cinderella. Today, they went on a adventure to Portland, Oregon. I let her pick parts of the story, and tonight their destination was Portland.

Peanut is really interested in words and reading. She asks us, "what does that say?" about 80 billion times a day. That and "why" are pretty much the top phrases. I bought her a book where she can start to practice writing her letters. I know at school, they discuss the letters, but I don't think they are writing them. She was trying to write her name the other day. She has the A down, but anything after that is pretty indistinguishable. I like that she is interested in learning and reading. It is pretty exciting for me.

BabyP is cutting a tooth. He barely napped today. He was so tired that he slept through his sister's meltdown.

He is getting better at standing with no support. He is also getting his wave down, but unfortunately, he waves only at himself. He is so awesome. They are so simple at this age. He also said "bye bye" again when we were waving to grandma and grandpa on skype. I don't know if that counts as a word because he was just repeating what we said. He does seem to be gearing up for talking. He talks little sentences to us about his day. He will also cut us off and say his piece. He finally made the mamama sound, but mostly these days, he says lalalala.

BabyP is full on into "rascal" stage. He LOVES the toilet. LOVES the toilet. I have been lucky enough grab his hand before he has pulled anything out. Today, while with his father, BabyP grabbed a nut cover off the base of the toilet and threw it in. I think BabyP has been planning that one for a while because I have busted him trying to do it before. Two days ago, in about 10 minutes, he bruised one eye on the window ledge, and then busted his other eye on the coffee table. The daycare is going to be suspicious of Mr. T because my lip is busted from nursing someone while he had a remote in his hand. That boy is strong.

Anyway, here is a little video of our toilet rascal.

I'm really tired

That might be the new name for my blog. Someone, right now, is crying because I give up nursing him ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. I am a patient woman, but my button has been pushed.

I feel bad for him, I really do. But man... I don't even believe that him crying is going to do me any good. Did I mention that it is 12:30 in the afternoon, he faked napped twice and has already been nursed.

He is cutting yet another molar. His sister wasn't this irritable with the molars. Oh well. I guess I will go back in there, nurse, and try to move him into his crib before I pass out from being so tired. It has been 20 minutes afterall.

Who, but my sweet boy, cries this much about taking a nap that he so desperately needs?!

Maybe later I will update on our week in Fort Worth, my exciting lottery winnings, and a million ways to spend that tax return. For now, it is back to being the human pacifier.

Spring - in not a bit late

His name is Mr. Nursey Suckels-a-lot and being a nursling is his game. I don't know if he is sick, the antibiotic is ripping him a new one or if his teeth are coming in, but he is up every two hours nursing. Last night he was inconsolable for about an hour. It makes mommas very tired. He also, just for good measure, has a pretty nasty diaper rash. We have been in paper diapers (sposies) all weekend because they are better at wicking away any moisture near his bum. Poor bear.

Can you see the bruise on his head? Can you see the busted lip? He is into cruising and trying to stand on his own. He also has a cut under his chin. He sure does have a reassuring smile though, doesn't he?

That is fig newton all over his face. I have given up on baby food. He gets a little yogurt, but that is all he will eat off the spoon. With the baby food he will yank the spoon out of my hand and throw the food off the end of it. If I take the spoon back, he yells at me. sigh... so he wins. It is for the best, really, but he still isn't a champion eater, so we are eating a lot of soft foods these days. (pasta anyone?)

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Peanut is doing okay. She is as bossy as ever. We had a special day the other day where we made bakalava. I don't think she had any because I think that was also the day that she let herself out of the house. AGAIN!!!! I was pretty angry. I sent her to her room, gave her her pajamas, and told her to put them on. She was going to bed. "I WANT MY DADDY." So she got her daddy, who told her the same thing. She was pretty upset and cried off and on for the next hour and half with us going in to talk with her. On one occasion she said, "I just didn't see that far ahead." and on another occasion, "I don't want to go outside without an adult."

I would like to say she has been minding better, but she really hasn't been. The chart is helping though. On the bright side, she hasn't let herself out again.

This is her Easter outfit with accessories. She loves necklaces and headbands. She is so fancy.

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Today, as I was "pee peeing on top of her pee pee", she asked me "do you have hair on your pee pee". "Yes I do." "I don't have hair on my pee pee." "no you don't, but when you get older you will. You will also have it under your arms." "No, I am going to be Cinderella when I grow up, and she doesn't have a hairy bum."

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We went to Wye Mountain today. I think we missed the peak of the flowers, but we still were able to see lots of them. A lot of the shots I had of peanut were from her back because she loved running through the field of "daffodillys". It is a pretty glorious day today. Too bad we are all too exhausted to really enjoy it. Mr. T. is on his third hour of sleeping and peanut and baby P are on their second. I was enjoying a nap until people kept calling us.

It is hard being the nightwatchman.

I like this one of her in the tree.

This is how it goes. A girl is trying to be serious, but her father is torturing her. I like the look on her face and also how babyP is plotting to get back into my arms.

Who knows what he was pissed off about at this point. This was right when we got there.

Mom jeans look better when you are standing up. (Must keep doing sit ups.) I have been really good lately and have been exercising almost everyday. I just need to keep toning up my stomach area because tucking one's stomach into their jeans just isn't attractive.

Everyone's happy.

Drum Roll Please!!

Here it is. THE SWEATER!! The sweater that most of my knitting friends have watched me knit since October 2006. The only thing they have ever seen me knit.

And it is done.

Well kinda. It still needs a zipper. Mr. T. put it on tonight and it looks really good on him. It fits him really snug across the chest. It is going to look great when I either put the zipper in or have someone do it for me.

HURRAY!!

(don't mind the pot belly or the unwashed hair. Geez, I never put pictures on my blog when I actually look good)

I did mess up on the back when I was incorporating the sleeves. Somehow, the stitch count got off and one taper is a little higher than the other. It makes the sweater sit kind of wonky on shoulder, but that is okay. He still likes it.

You can see where some of the yarn I got was bad so it is all weird in one spot. That is okay though, we got it straightened out.

The shoulder.

I really like the neck. I like how it stands up.

The sleeve with some handsome little man thrown in for good measure.

Nightmare

Peanut had another nightmare last night. She woke up around 530 yelling "NO NO NO". Mr. T. was a little hard to get up, and she sounded like she really needed someone. I got up and went to her, hugged her, and told her I would protect her. I told her no one is going get her and had her lay down with me. She quickly fell back to sleep.

She woke up about an hour later. I asked her if she had a nightmare or a bad dream. "ah-huh, I did."
"What was going on? What happened?"
"I wanted my momma. Someone was eating all of my pancakes."

Oh the horror!