Winnie the...

Poo Poo

I probably should have corrected the kids the first time they called this lovable little icon Poo Poo, but I just couldn't help myself. They still think that's his real name......What?? some kids grow up believing a fat guy in a red suit at the mall gives them Christmas presents, let me have my fun.

First Names

"Email"

Hello World.....or the 3 People Who Still Read This (I Heart You).

Okay, I know it's been a while. A really long while, and to be honest the thing that bothers me the most about not blogging is that I've got about a thousand chicken pictures backed up that I'm longing to showcase. I know, it's sad. Several months of not blogging and the only thing I care about is showing you chicken pictures. My gosh somebody slap me.

We are completely moved into the new house now. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I'll get around to it eventually....probably when we're ready to move again. I have to say, after living here for a month, I'm in love. We were really skeptical about this house for a few reasons. One: it only has three bedrooms so Hayden and Mariah have to share. Two: there's this big awkward space right when you walk in the front door that we can't figure out what to do with and we definitely don't have enough furniture to put in it. Three: It has a smaller yard than our last place and we value a big yard. All three points have worked themselves out though. The room sharing has actually been quite fun for the kids. I thought having them share a room would be a sleep loss nightmare (for me), but Mariah is a heavier sleeper than I thought and has so far slept through all of Hayden's nightly strolls and potty breaks. The bonus room has turned into a temporary piano room/play room, which when we're having a good day is almost magically wonderful...like something from a movie, And the smaller backyard has proven that quality is better than quantity....what can I say, I appreciate mature trees and SHADE.

I don't have any pictures to display right now since per my facebook status I am out a computer for a while and am borrowing Helmut's to make this long overdue post, but hopefully something soon.

Also, we took the kids to see Toy Story 3 today and it was hilarious. Mariah didn't quite make it to the end, but Hayden was still jamming popcorn in his mouth as the credits were rolling. As far as scary goes, i don't think it was as scary as the first and will probably be my favorite of all 3 of the series.

Conversations with a Three Year Old: The House

Hayden: "Mommy, what's that?"
(Pointing to a screw sized hole in the ceiling)

Me: "It's just a hole"

Hayden: "OH NO MY HOUSE IS BROOOOOOKEEEEEN.....I'm so sad."

Paints

It was even cuter when he was wearing the hat. One of Hayden's favorite activities that doesn't include running.

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Pedestrians

This exchange took place in the car on the way home from the store one night. It's important to note that Helmut and Hayden couldn't see each other at the time.

(From the back seat)Hayden: wiping something from his eye,
"What's that?"
(From the driver's seat) Helmut: noticing a pedestrian,
"That's just a man walking down the street."

Hayden: pausing to think,
"there's a man walking down the street in my eye??"

Ranch Day

While our chicken was becoming cat chow we were off enjoying a day at the Hamilton Ranch. Thanks Carol, Henry and family for the fun times!

Bonding Time

In truth, he's holding that stick in the hopes that he will be able to mesmerize Hayden into staying still for 2 seconds while I snap a picture.

Life with Chicks: Still Alive

We've had the chickens for a few weeks now, and miraculously they're all still alive. I say "miraculously" because last week Hayden tried to play softball with them and almost broke one of their legs. I actually thought he broke it because the bird didn't move for a few days, but now I can't tell which one got hit, so I think they're all fine.

New House Rule: No playing catch with the birds.

That said, the chickens are easy to care for, and hardier than I thought. Hayden has been quite rough with them despite repeated time-outs, spankings and conversations about why we shouldn't be rough with the chicks i.e. "they will die!" I realized before I got them that it would be a challenge to keep them alive around Hayden. He doesn't have mean intent, but he really likes to play rough. What I didn't count on though was how badly they would smell. I now know why birds are called Fowl. The stench emanating from our garage at this time can be described using words such as: Special, Unbelievable, Disgusting, and FOWL. I never realized they could smell this badly. I gotta say I'm really looking forward to getting them out of the garage in into the farthest corner of the back yard so I don't have to vomit in my mouth every time i feed them. Even I who claim little to no sense of smell can smell more of these birds than I ever cared too.

I wish it had been possible to buy full grown egg layers. That would have made my life much easier. But I guess this way Hayden is "bonding" with them.

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Garbage

Me: "Hayden, please pick up those raisins that you dropped on the floor and put them in the trash."

Hayden: "Okay!"

Me: "Where are the raisins?"

Hayden: "I put them in the trash can in my mouth."

Easter Egg Hunt

Today we made an offer on a house we really wanted.....and within hours we got rejected and they picked somebody else. I thought i wasn't going to care if that happened, but it turns out i took so many pictures of this ugly old house trying to decide if we could fix it, that i somehow got emotionally attached. So instead of talking about how bummed I am, I'm going to show you some pictures of the Easter egg hunt we went to at our church on Saturday.

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Meals

The Owl in the back is Hayden, the one in front is me, and no Karaoke during nap time is NOT MY THING.

Not only were we trying to accomplish nap time today while getting a new roof put on our house, but we were also interrupted by various things at 15 minute intervals for the first hour....i.e..bathroom, doorbell, doorbell, pounding...etc. ect. This conversation took place after we settled down again for the fourth attempt at a nap:


Hayden: "Mommy, can i have some breakfast?"

Me: "No, we just ate lunch."

Hayden: "I don't want lunch, I want breakfast."

Me: "You can have a snack after you take your nap."

Hayden: "OKAY!!!!!!!"

Me: After that I believe I admitted an audible growl, but i can't be sure.

He then spent the next 30 minutes poking my face, kicking the wall, and singing until Mariah finally woke up and miraculously he fell asleep.

Photo courtesy of Lolcats

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Safety Gear

The past few weeks Hayden has discovered that Mommy and Daddy have names. He tentatively calls me "Kari" from time to time, and asks me where "Helmut" is. I have to admit that while I laugh it off, I also find it very disturbing. Something about having my 3 year old son calling me "Kari" feels really weird.

After dinner we decided to go for a walk and let Hayden ride his bike to burn off some of his "bad" energy (trust me, it was REALLY BAD).

Helmut: "Hayden, please take your bike out of the garage."

Hayden: picking up is bike helmet, "Daddy, you have to help me put on this helmut first."

Helmet, helmut....same diff.

The Rice and Beans Eating #FAIL

I've put off writing this post for a while because I feel like a Rice and Beans participant failure. I was so excited about the possibilities this month was going to bring to our family, the solidarity, the fasting from the world, the fasting from all foods in the "junk" category. I never thought I'd be a push-over-giver-upper. I began preparing our family for a month of just rice, beans, and assorted vegetables in January. We don't normally eat beans, not because we don't like them, simply because I didn't know how to make them. So in January I got some bean making advice and started making them for dinner twice a week.

The first time I made them Hayden ardently declared his dislike and refused to eat any of them. At first I thought he was being spoiled and would eventually grow to love them.....given time....and hopefully before the two months was up. I was grossly mistaken. Not only does he still not love them, he can barely stomach them. That makes two whole foods that my 3 year old can't stand, Beans and BRUSSEL SPROUTS. Who knew beans could even be grouped in the same category as brussel sprouts?! I mean, that's like comparing them to cabbage juice....which really just tastes like broccoli. Gah, some vegetables are rank. I digress.

We've gone from spoon feeding him the beans, to threatening him with imminent discipline, to watching him gag, and finally a grand ending about 2 weeks ago where he threw up after dinner. That's when I threw in the towel. Instead of solidarity we were getting stress, complaints, confusion, and finally barf.

I haven't completely given up. Mariah LOVES beans, and Helmut also seems to like them, so I'm still making them two or three times a week. I'm already looking forward to next year and thinking of how I can do things differently in between now and then to smooth the transition for the kids.

I feel a tremendous amount of guilt about this whole process. I know if we didn't have any other food available to us Hayden would probably learn to like his beans....or at least appreciate their value.

In spite of quitting early I have taken a few lessons out of this challenge. I do think I use food as a crutch, and a comfort more than I realized I did. I often let my daily menu dictate my mood, and happiness factor. I constantly "reward" myself with edible treats and make up for daily losses in sanity with coffees, chocolates, or CHEESE (did I tell you about my recent love affair with Brie?) All practices that I hadn't realized that I was developing and hope to curb quickly. I don't think their is anything wrong with treating oneself once in a while...just maybe not as often or as extravagantly.

Picture courtesy of Lahash. For more info on what Rice and Beans month is click here. For more info on the people behind Rice and Beans click here.

Life with Chicks.....and by Chicks, I mean baby birds.

Did I mention we got some chickens? Just in case I forgot, here are a few pictures of the six new additions to our household. They are currently taking up a few feet of our garage space, but will soon be taking up residence in the backyard.

Reasons for getting chickens:

1. Eggs

2. Pest Control....apparently they love to eat fire ants and other "pestilence."

3. I always wanted to have some chickens....I would probably also get a cow if I had experience milking one.....and while were at it lets throw in a pony, heck our back yard is pretty big.

4. Bug Allergy help - You all know how Mariah has a freakish bug bite allergy, where if left untreated the bites grow to the size of an oreo cookie, followed by insomnia and a wicked diaper rash. Last summer after a few of these instances we came across Apis Mellifica (a homeopathic treatment sold at health food stores), and our lives have been much less stressful. While this stuff works almost instantly on the bug bites I consider it a band-aid. I'm hoping that by eating the eggs of the chickens that are eating our bugs, she will be able to build up some kind of immunity.....if not, well then we'll just have plentiful free range organic eggs.

Vacation Rants

Our mish mash winter clothing compiled of hand-me-downs and that crazy coat i bought 9 years ago in Austria.

Last night we returned from spending two weeks with my family up in Pennsylvania. That means two 4 hour airplane rides, 2 rides of 3 hours in the car, and 2 times we made it through airport security. Having just spent two weeks daily consuming my body weight in chocolate and whoopie pies, my thoughts are a little sugared out and uninspired. All this is due to change this week though as we embark on our Rice and Beans diet, and quit the sugar, caffeine, and whatever else completes our being for the remainder of the month of March.

That stated, let's talk airport security. Is it really necessary for my babies to remove their jackets and shoes to go through the beepy door? I mean, are we worried that they might be armed? or maybe hiding a switchblade in their shoes? Seriously, last time I allowed my toddler to carry a concealed weapon in his jacket I SPECIFICALLY told him he wasn't allowed to take it on an airplane. I'm all for safety, but i think we might be overdoing it.

Hayden, his Uncle Cody, and Maya watching a movie.

As for the plane rides, Hayden angelically watched movies, ate snacks and played educational iphone games (really really educational.....as in he now knows all of his letters), and Mariah treated both flight's passengers to random scream fests, a few tantrums, a horrendous display of baby savagery where she scratched, kicked and bit me, and ended both flights with a shrug and some cute smiles.....Did I mention how she also covered every available surface with cracker crumbs, sticky goo, and toasted pumpkin seeds?......Sorry stewardesses. At least this trip didn't involve any explosive poops.

Vacation

I have lots to say about our vacation, and more pictures than I know what to do with, but I'm so exhausted right now I'm not completely sure if I'm typing this update in my twitter account, facebook status or the actual blog. I hope it's the blog, because it would make a much too lengthy - TMI - status update.

More to come after I've had some sleep.

New Camera

My birthday was two weeks ago, and since I think I've learned as much as the little 3 mega pixel camera in my iphone can teach me, I asked Helmut to get me a real camera as my birthday gift. He did as promised and allowed me to have my pick. The first one I got was a Fuji 10 mega pixel point and click digital camera. The pictures were just okay, but not much of an improvement from my iphone, so last night amidst much kicking and screaming (Hayden AND Mariah), lots of shredded paper (Mariah), and an iphone game distraction (Hayden), we managed to pick out a Nikon DX 3000. We did not do research, and we had LOTS of distractions so we're both really hoping this camera lives up to the price tag. It was 550$ at Best Buy, so it was the cheapest of all the much more professional looking cameras. This morning I took the kids to the park to try it out and have to say I'm liking it. Of course I have no more experience than a person whose taken 1,200 pictures with an iphone, so i really feel like a poser.....or the paparazzi. It reminds me of Julia Roberts cell phone in My Best Friends Wedding. The following are my three favorite pictures before the battery died....which was about 15 minutes and 15 photos. Next time I should probably try charging it first.

I should also probably properly clean my child's face before our next photo shoot. *guffaw*

Conversations with a Three Year Old: Spanish

Helmut: "Hayden, dejame ponerte la playera."

Hayden: "No No, don't talk to me in backwards."

The Workout Plan and Incidental Extras

Last week I went to the gym twice to attend some yoga classes for my back....and that's where my plan for self induced physical therapy met a road block. Both children and myself came down with colds after the second attendance and ended up staying home sick all of the second week.

Our sicknesses hit a peak a couple of days ago, when during the night Mariah woke up and cried and thrashed for two hours, I ran a low grade fever, and Hayden spent the night coughing and waking repeatedly. The next afternoon (which i think was yesterday.....but i've lost all track of time) my vitamins for the kids came in the mail and after 1 day on them we're all feeling much better, but not before yesterday's mishap.

When I was a little kid....aged 6, I witnessed a school mate having a nose bleed. I remember vividly freaking out quietly inside my head (because i was really shy) and thinking his brain was bleeding out his nose. Years later after being married to my wonderful husband for about 4 years, i found out that he too is afflicted by the infrequent nose bleed. VERY infrequent apparently because in our then 9 years of acquaintance and marriage i had never before witnessed one....which brings me to yesterday:

We had been hanging around the house, playing inside, watching cartoons and generally taking it easy when i decided everyone looked well enough for a walk to the mailbox. I asked Hayden if he wanted to ride his bike, to which he promptly said "YES." I then proceeded to use the restroom, change out of my pj's and fix my rat's nest (ugh, i mean hair) while he followed me around whining repeatedly that he wanted to "ride his bike." I was trying to keep my mouth shut and not explode from all the whining, so i didn't say anything. Instead I kept getting dressed. The next thing i knew he was standing in front of me with blood pouring out of his nose. I sat him on the sink and tried not to let my utter horror, worry and panic show on my face as i tried to hold a towel to his nose. He responded the way any strong willed 3 year old boy would: by screaming really loudly and thrashing about. I tried to get him to put his head back....because isn't that what you're supposed to do?! But he refused, kept screaming and the blood kept pouring out like Niagara falls. So i did what i thought would be best and made him lay down on the counter. That made everything 1000% worse, because now not only was he screaming and thrashing, but the blood was going down his throat and choking him and he was coughing it out of his mouth. Right about then i wanted to faint into a dead sleep and not wake up until the issue had resolved itself, but realizing that if I did Mariah would have time to consume that entire deodorant that she was munching on while we were having our little wrestling match i decided not too. Instead I finally got some sense in my head, pulled Hayden into my lap and sat on the counter hugging him, holding a towel to his nose, and explaining amidst the crying that "this is okay and it happens to daddy when he's sick too."

I'm not going to lie, seeing that much blood come out of my son was terrifying. He's a rough boy and is constantly covered in scratches, cuts and bruises from playing, but this was decidedly different. I now realize that I had better do a little research on nose bleeds so that next time it happens I won't feel so panicked. Kids can sense that stuff no matter how little of it shows up on our faces....at least mine can. Which brings me to:

Life Lesson #14 (approx.): Research hereditary illness before it shows up in your kids, so when it does make an appearance you'll know how to deal with it appropriately and without fear.....or at least panic.