The Great Stickering of 2014

It was a cold and rainy day around here today, and I was tired after having 2 dogs sleep in bed with me all night last night (like I said, it was cold, and apparently a 2-dog night).  So, during quiet time today, I took a nap on the sofa.  Jake came out of quiet time at the normal time, and I assume saw me, and then continued on about his business - I say I assume because I didn't really wake up when he got up, I just kind of noticed at some point that he was around.  When I did finally actually become lucid again, I noticed that he had been up to something, and we will refer to that something as:

The Great Stickering of 2014!!

Smiley face stickers on the bottom step (I think it may have been one sticker per total number of steps, but I didn't think to count before he removed them all)

One sticker on the wall above each step...

One sticker on the wood part of each step...

One star sticker for each cabinet door or drawer...

And also for the ovens and refrigerator doors...

And a bunch of blue ones just for fun

He sure is proud of himself!

When asked what exactly he was up to, he said that he did it for Travis to make him smile when he got up from his nap.  Upon getting up from his nap and seeing all the stickers, Travis proclaimed that they were "pretty".

So, odd day around here, but at least someone enjoyed all the stickers on the wall!!

Surviving the Plague

Well, the stomach plague which has been circulating throughout everywhere recently finally made its unwelcome way into our home on the 15th.  Poor Jake, up all  night with the yuck.  And it wasn't just the 24 hour variety, he relapsed about 36 hours after all of it started.  After 48 hours, we thought the rest of us were in the clear.  But when we woke up Tuesday, poor little Travis had developed the yuck as well.  By Wednesday night Blake had it, Travis relapsed on Thursday and come Friday morning even I succumbed.  It looks like I got off pretty easy though, without all the yacking that everyone else did, and I am TOTALLY going to credit the fact that I take Omeprizole for frequent heartburn for that save!!

So really the last 10 days has consisted of the following for us:
 - Curious George on Netflix (we watched the first 2 seasons, and that is a lot of Curious George)
 - Wreck It Ralph
 - The Incredibles
 - The Croods
 - Ice Age
 - Brave
 - Monsters University
 - Probably other Disney and Pixar movies that I am forgetting because they were on non-stop Sunday thru Thursday with 2 littles feeling bad
 - Not eating much of anything for anyone
 - Laundry (so much laundry, and then all that same laundry again, and again, and again)
 - Dishes
 - Cleaning up "spills"
 - Lysoling EVERYTHING (and when I say everything I mean that I sprayed the sofas, the stair handrails, the pillows, the matresses, every toy, light switches, door handles, toilet parts, sink parts, trash cans, Remotes, phones, kindles, EVERYTHING that anyone had touched all week)
 - Bleaching everything which could be bleached (and maybe then some...)
 - Replacing lots of things - toothbrushes, chapstick, lipstick

By Monday the "fog" around our house had lifted, and life went back to almost normal (I skipped my exercise class, because Monday is my hard day at the gym - but I did go today).

And as a reward for surviving, I bought the boys bubble guns and sunglasses, and let them have a war in the backyard.  They had fun!

Snow days - ugh!

There have been more "snow", "ice", and "inclement weather" days this year than there have ever been before in all the years that I can recall having lived in Austin.  And on those other years, it seemed much more legitimate, and we received much more snow...

I complain about it, probably mostly because everyone else is complaining about it - but really we don't have it that bad right now.

Reasons we don't have it that bad (and I should suck it up and stop complaining):

1. We do not have "school age" children, and this is not actually affecting their learning in any way.
2. Our MDO does open late on the delayed opening days for school, so the kids have still been able to go today and last Thursday.
3. 2 of the days have been Fridays, and we don't do school on Friday anyway.
4. We have not gotten into any car accidents!!

Reasons that it has actually been annoying me (and I am complaining):

1. They have missed (1) day of school (that Tuesday).
2. When school is closed, my gym classes are cancelled, so I have  missed 3 gym classes because of school closures (only one of which affected my kids school day).
3. On the kids school's late open days (last Thursday, and today) - I drug the kids to the gym with me, and then took them to school - no sense in ruining my entire day because it is a little cold.
4. It has been cold, and cold, and then warm, and then cold, and cold, and cold - and my kids have been cooped up inside, and making me crazy - and I just want to take them to the park to play and run out some energy so they will start behaving again, but it is too cold.

So yeah, I really have nothing to complain about, but I keep doing it anyway - oh well.  And here are pictures of our house on each of these "snow days"

Snow day #1 - justified snow day, it was cold, there was ice, and snowyness - we didn't leave the house until noon when the driveway melted.

Snow day #2 - justified snow day, it was cold, icy, and we did not leave the house all day long, for fear of being hit by falling icicles.

Snow day #3 - No, wait, this was February of 2010, when Jake was just a couple months old - and we lived at the old house, but there was no snow or ice to take a picture of on this actual day this year, it was just cold - so you get a old picture of a day when it was justified! 

Snow day #4 - also not a justified snow day, so you get another throw-back photo to February of 2011 - most justified one in recent past if you ask me, look at all that snow (and cute baby)!!

Snow day #5 - I don't even have another picture of a past snow day when we have lived here in recent times (so instead I'll put up another photo which actually has snow in it - even though it was 50* out at the time that we were playing in it)

Happy snow day #5 - I hope we are done for this year, cause seriously!

Mother of the Year? - possibly yes

Well, Mother of the Year award I think is about to be transferred to me...

We had some friends and their kiddos over for dinner on Saturday night - a show off the house, and catch up on everyone's lives type of dinner.  It was fun.  Various kids had various different meltdowns over various items throughout the night, but that is what happens when there are 6 kids running around the house (only 2 are mine), particularly when the 2 groups haven't played together since before Travis existed.

So fast forward through the yummy dinner, and let's get to WHY I think the Mother of the Year award should be transferred to me.

After dinner the adults were gabbing around the kitchen island, as they typically do.  The 3 big kids were upstairs playing video games, and 2 of the littles were downstairs watching Sleeping Beauty.  The other little, was out of eye-sight.  So I head upstairs to see what he is up to.  And I peep into the playroom - no Travis (I was really hoping he was just quietly playing).  I look in the game room where the big kids are - no Travis (And looking in there I was hoping he was just observing quietly).  I wander through Jake's room, Travis's room, and the spare room - no Travis (Crap, where is the kid).

  It is about this time that I hear - "SARAH" yelled at me from downstairs.  Now it sounded a bit frantic to me, so I knew I was not walking into anything that I would consider "appropriate behavior" for an almost 2-year old, and possibly something very bad.  And then I walk in on this:

He has climbed up on my sink, filled it with water and soap, all while still wearing his jeans, socks, and shoes, and he is taking a bath - we are talking rubbing soapy water all over himself taking a bath.  He was happy as can be, and so very proud of himself for getting clean.  My first reaction of course was - "Blake, Grab the camera" - so clearly I wasn't terribly upset that this was the outcome, there are a million worse things he could have been doing - and frankly, I thought it was funny that he was ready for bath time, and took it on himself to get it done.

Maybe not totally Mother of the Year worthy sounding, because I thought it as funny but seriously - I lost my kid (in my own house), and he ended up being found taking an unsupervised bath (At least it was in the sink and not in the tub).

(Big sigh)

So, after rinsing him off in the real bath tub (boy was super soapy), I deemed it time for him to go to bed so that I didn't manage to lose my kid AGAIN, and have him get into something even worse.  It was past his bedtime anyway, which is probably why he thought he was overdue for a bath.