A little Squeezie in my life.

My Squeezie turned 2 this week!!! He is such a sweet little boy. He has this amazing smile and a tiny voice, that we only just started hearing, it makes me smile with joy. He loves to color; that child can color or draw for hours. He likes to play with Lightning McQueen, Mater and other Cars' cars. He is this great mix of brute strength and sensitivity. He will scream, tackle, hit, and knock you down, but then he loves to give kisses, brush his hair, try on shoes, give hugs, watch Boz/Cars/Dora, take stuffed animals on walks, spend quality one-on-one time with his daddy, and dance to Ozzy Osbourne. Plus, he is such an adventurous eater. For example- last night we went to Panera and Squeezie ate onion slices, plain, he just picked them off his sandwich!!!! Yuck, there is no way I would do that. He picked tomato off the sandwich and shoved it in his mouth no problem, even though eating tomatoes gives him little red bumps on his chin. The day before Pete was eating a SPICY burrito and Squeeze ate about 1/4 of it without taking a drink of water or making any faces-he LOVED it. He loves both his brothers so much. When Jack is around he mimics him, laughs, and loves to play with him. When it comes to Thomas he will hug him, kiss him, pat him, and make him laugh. It is so amazing seeing him become and be his own little man.

It was a WD-40 kinda day

Yesterday I took an hour to get out of the house, my dad's house, and go to Wal-Mart. This isn't a fancy outing I know, but I'll take what I can get. The kids were napping so I didn't feel bad about leaving my brother and Nanny in charge. When I pulled back into the driveway and saw my brother getting something out of his car, I asked him how things went, thinking they obviously went well since kids were sleeping, but soon found out I was wrong. Jack found sharpie markers in my brother's room and decided that he and Luke would look better with various shades of green on their face. He also thought our pack-and-play, Will's lampshade, and the dresser needed to be decorated as they were apparently too boring and dull in their previous state. In the end, Jack was admonished and scolded by his great Nanny as she tried to impress upon him the error of his ways and then sat with him until he and Luke fell asleep.
The next morning Jack and Luke wanted to let their artistic side show once more, I brought out crayons and paper so there wouldn't be a repeat offense. They were working hard when I had to use the restroom. When I returned I was met with a wooden rocking chair covered in marker and crayon and a leather ottoman covered in pen and marker. I was furious. Didn't he just get in trouble for this? Hadn't he learned his lesson?  I even told him before I left the room to keep it on the paper. Oh man!!!!!!

 We learned these things today:
-WD-40 works wonders on taking crayons off wood.
-  Dabbing the ottoman with vinegar, wiping with windex, and finishing it off with rubbing alcohol gets pen off leather.
-The following sort of kinda works on getting sharpie off your lampshade but will leave a large watermark: Hairspray, vegetable oil, baking soda toothpaste, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol.

 Being reminded by your Nanny not to lose your temper with your overly rambunctious son, but to use a calm, stern, level voice is slightly embarrassing, mostly since I didn't realize she heard me yell at him this morning.

Guess what I did this week.

So guess what I did earlier this week-------had my appendix removed. Awesome.

Saturday I had some cramping pains but honestly I thought they were menstrual pains. Then Sunday night, around the time of the Super Bowl, I began to have sharp constant stomach pain. Then the pain began to wrap around to my back and I began to feel very nauseated. I decided to just lay down in my bed and when I went to stand up I realized I couldn't stand up all the way-- I was a little hunchback. Once I made it to bed I knew I wouldn't be able to get up again and of course that is when Thomas noticed me and began to cry. I just stayed in bed because I knew, no matter how pitiful the face and cry, I wouldn't be able to get out of bed and if I did lifting him would result in both of us being injured some how. Luckily, Pete came home about 5-10 minutes later and asked if he should get Thomas. By then I had the chills something horrible. I wrapped the down comforter all the way around me but nothing. I decided to hunchback walk myself to the shower so I could warm up. Pete came in with tylenol and advil because he thought I had a fever, which I hadn't thought about--haha. In the warmth of the shower I was able to start thinking a bit more clearly and noticed the pain was focused on my right side, and I remembered your appendix was on the right side, so I had Pete check what the other symptoms were. As he read them off I was like √ √√, but I didn't want to go in case it was just gas. I mean how embarrassing would it be to go to the ER, have the doctor press on your stomach, fart, and then have them say that will be 1,000 you can go home now. Plus, the money thing was another reason not to go. We don't have any!!!!! Our insurance sucks!!!!! We are moving to a new country in a month or two ,how will we get and pay the bills???? I told Pete we should wait ,and he wondered just what I was going to wait for. Good point but still. He called his mom and she had him do a few things on me to test it out and the results were that I should probably go to the ER now. Let me tell you that it was almost midnight at this point. He loaded up the boys and off we went.

 The nurses did the preliminary stuff, but it was going to be a bit before the doctor got there, and we wouldn't know anything until then and probably wouldn't even then because he would probably have me sent off for a CT scan. Pete wanted to stay I know he did, but by 1am and no sign of the doctor I sent them home. So basically skip ahead to 3:30am it was confirmed I had a very angry and irritated appendix that had to come out that day. I got moved upstairs and admitted as a patient, was given morphine, and only got a couple hours sleep because really, who can sleep in a hospital? My surgery was at noon, and I told Pete to just stay home with the boys because there was no point in him 1. being at the hospital just waiting when he could be hanging out with the boys and 2. if he was going to hang out with the boys do it at home and not the hospital where they would go crazy.

 I guess everything got delayed some, even my waking up from anesthesia, I was informed I was a light weight and that it took me awhile to come to. Pete and the boys had been waiting for me for about an hour, but even when I was back in my room he wasn't informed until I sent him a text. (It is hard to navigate hospital time when you have a family.) The visit was short since they had already been there awhile and Thomas very angry that he was being forced to drink formula from a bottle when he is 100% breastfed. So I just hung out in my room, watched E!, drifted in and out sleep, begged to be allowed to drink Coke even though it isn't technically a clear fluid, pumped some milk, took my iv machine on a walk down the hall, got dizzy, had some morphine, took another walk, failed at urinating, then finally success, promised them I was not nauseated but was in fact very hungry since it had been over 24 hours since I had dinner on Sunday, was allowed to eat oatmeal, and settled into a night of watching the Bachelor. The pain level was still pretty high with morphine but once I got my pills I could go longer without complaining.

There was a general consensus among the nurses and aides, well probably unanimous consensus, that having 3 kids as close in age as mine was something none of them would ever do. It was something I heard so often I that wished I had some snide remark to make about them. Let me just say 1. yes, I do know how babies are made  2. yes, we understand what you need to do if you don't want to have kids 3. it isn't your place to tell us what not to do on valentine's day 4. yes, three kids is a lot of work, 5. yes, it can be crazy and 6. I am not asking you to have three kids or to take my three kids so please shut up about it because I love and like my three kids.

So that is pretty much it. The next day in the hospital I just hung out waiting to finish my antibiotics so I could go home. I was allowed to eat real food, but my eyes were far bigger than my stomach. I took my ever faithful IV machine on a couple walks to the end of the hall, I caught up with the Kardashians, and read some of the US magazine Pete had given me.

When I got home there were I Love Mommy pictures on front door, which was super cute. I heard that the boys were great for Pete. I am also very grateful to have such an awesome husband.

Potty Training?

It seems that Luke has decided it is time to be potty trained. We struggled for about a month or two with him pooping in his bed and on the floor, and then a few days ago he brought me his Queen(Lightning McQueen) and Melmo(Elmo) underwear and demanded to wear them. The first day I thought, fine this is going to be a pain in the butt for me because he is going to keep peeing in them, but it actually went really well. I diapered him up at naptime and bedtime but otherwise it was Melmo undies all day. I didn't think that he would ask for a repeat but as soon as he woke up he wanted Queen undies so we did it again.

We made going to the grocery store a family outing yesterday and Luke wore his undies. Big Step! He fell asleep in the car on the way home so Pete put him straight to bed from the car and the whole time---no accidents! Crazy. There have been a couple accidents, so it isn't perfect, but for a mom who wasn't planning on potty training him for another year this has gone amazingly well.

We are having one slight hangup and it is poop. You would think that a kid who has no problem flinging feces around his room would welcome pooping on the potty, but I guess not. He knows when he has to go because he will say it, go to the bathroom, come over to me, say it again, and sit on the potty. He wants to be read to while he sits, so I read to him, and he will sit there for about 15 minutes before he decides it is time to get up. Then about 20 minutes later we go through the whole process again. So day 1 and day 2 he didn't poop at all. I was a bit concerned because both days he really had to, but no matter how many times he sat on the toilet looking at books, he just couldn't do it. So I tried something that worked on Jack: I read for a few minutes then said I had to go do something but would be back in a few minutes to read again. This worked for Jack, he pooped while I was gone because he needed to be left alone. This did not work for Squeezy. Though I may try again.

So today (day 3) I was just going to diaper him up because I wanted him to poop, and really if he isn't ready to be potty-trained it isn't a big deal to me. However, as soon as I reached for a diaper, he ran to get race car undies. This afternoon he began to say he needed to poop again so I said fine let's put on the diaper. He got so upset. He cried, said no, ran into the bathroom, said he wanted to sit on the potty, and refused to let me put a diaper on him. I put it on him anyway and he took it off, cried, and ran into the bathroom. So into the bathroom I went, loaded with books and the diaper. I read him two or three picture books and by the time I was half-way through with the third book he was asking for the diaper to be put on. So I put it on. This child really wants to be potty-trained and he is also really stubborn. He sort of went but not all the way, and again demanded to sit on the potty to try to finish his business. He did not succeed but did ask for a few hugs while he was sitting there. I guess he wanted some reassurance and comfort.

I am still not 100% sure that we are potty-training for real, but I'll keep going as long as he keeps asking. Plus what kid doesn't love an excuse not to wear pants all day.(ps. did you notice that he can talk now!!!)

Since we are talking about using the potty- here is a rule that we adhere to in our house

Packing

Moving whether it be across the state, country, or ocean feels like a never ending process. I go through one closet, one cabinet, one room, and I feel like I have accomplished so much, but then I take a step back and it just looks messier and I see there is far more left to do. Then there are those things that I want to pack, but wonder if I will need them in the next month and half before we leave Indiana, so they stay put. Since we are chucking most of our things it has been an interesting mix of emotions. Still no matter what- Jack's room continues to look like this:

We have gotten rid of half of our toys, but somehow whatever we have left manages to be dumped onto the floor. 

Jack isn't overly excited about moving but did recently say that he was happy to move because he wouldn't have to sleep on an air mattress with a hole in it anymore. 

I have filled up my planner with weekly to-dos from now until we leave. It doesn't feel so overwhelming anymore. Maybe because I know that I can get it done before we leave with no problems. Maybe because I know when we move the first few months are going to be so much more stressful than anything going on now so why make it worse by stressing over the things we have under control? Maybe I am even becoming slightly excited about this whole new experience--maybe? 

I am sad that baking over there is going to be quite difficult. They don't have baking soda or brown sugar and I have heard you have to sift the flour multiple times before you can use it to make cookies; if you are able to procure the needed baking items at all. I am probably going to pack baking soda and maybe 1 bag of brown sugar? I guess I will have to find some German dessert recipes once we are there.

I have decided I need to start saving for a nicer camera so I can take clearer/crisper pictures of all our travels and adventures. We started making a list of cities we want to see while we are there, and that does have me pretty excited about moving.

Still we have a lot of US fun coming our way before we go: Thomas's baptism, a math conference at Vandy, Luke's 2nd birthday, Jack's 5th birthday, bringing cupcakes to Jack's school for his first birthday at school, saying goodbye to family and friends, and maybe celebrating Pete's birthday before we leave since it will happen just a few days after we arrive in Germany.

2 months until we leave the states completely and a month and a half before we leave IN. I've got it under control.