I miss you

My parents in law took the kids for the week. Today Gerry sent me this picture. Sometimes it just hits me. This little girl of mine is so wonderfully beautiful. She's also sweet, generally. I miss my kids, but have had a productive week. On the way home from Idaho I realized I only had one child, which essentially means that I could go running ( I don't have a double stroller and the two young ones are two young for any other option I have come up with). So I made a point of it to run every day we aren't traveling this week. So far so good.

This never happens...

Olea NEVER sleeps in the car.
Olea NEVER takes naps.

But today. Gloria. She did.
This is good, because Olea was being a "turkey" this morning.
I could tell she was tired. Wonderful.
All three of them fell asleep.
Genève was no surprise but Zurich was, he usually doesn't fall asleep in the car either.

However, I feel guilty when my kids sleep in the car.
Why?
I feel guilty that I think it's so great that they are asleep and quiet and restrained.
I feel guilty that their heads all are drooped over, it makes my neck sore just looking at them.

Zurich had his 18month check.
I immunize my kids. Don't try to convince me otherwise.
He didn't even flinch at the shot. That's my boy. Then he came home and his sister kicked him off the ottoman and then he bent over to get a bottle of lotion and miscalculated where the bed was in relation to his head... and smacked himself right on the brow... bad. Poor kid.
At least he was bruise free for the doc this morning.
He's about 22 lbs and yes his head is in a totally different percentile than his body. Head.
But he's a smarty with over 35 words in his regular use vocabulary.

Jammies

Me and my girls. I made us all matching jammies over the years. They are all a little different and I made the patterns. Olea's is a night dress that as she got older I made capris that go under it so it works as she grows (since the girl only gets taller not any thicker). Genève's is a baby jammie bag, (which as she gets older I can remove the elastic from the bottom and she has a night dress) and mine has a top pannel to cover nursing access. They each have gathered neck and sleeves and a black bow in the front. I put a black bow in the front of Olea's pants so she knows front from back. They are lovingly referred to as our "princess monkey jammies."


Olea just opened a bill from the mail and said, "Look Mama, we got a free new envelope, isn't that great?!"
Ya, it's so great I am going to use it to send all of our money away to pay a medical bill.

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall,

Who the heck is that?!

Do you ever look in the mirror and the person you see looks unfamiliar...
not like, didn't do hair or make up unfamiliar,
but like... I really look like that?
not like, I don't know who I am...
but like, the reflection surprises you.
?

like and stuff...

This happens to me on occasion.
For instance when I walk into the bathroom for something and happen to catch my own reflection...
and it startles me because I didn't expect to see anyone.

... maybe I don't think I should have a reflection... not sure.

P.S. Diaper Rash

As a reminder to myself to tell my sister... (Who I can't call at the moment because I am on hold with Hospital Financial Services) who called asking about diaper rash and I told her I hadn't recently had that problem with my little ones... the next day Genève got one... pretty bad. She'd had it at least a week and a half as I tried to figure out how to ease it.

So now I have cured Genève's diaper rash.

A+D ointment in and of itself wasn't working. Desitin wasn't either... and even less. I tried a few other things as well... But what worked is what is important so I am skipping right to that.

After diapering dry off their little bum and apply A+D (the gold one) and then liberally apply Johnson's Baby Powder Medicated. I think it took a day to two days to completely clear it up being really consistent and quick on the diapers. I feel better, I assume Genève does. :)

Dictionary

So I was reading the dictionary the other day...
Don't laugh.
That's not the funny part.
The funny part is that the past three books I have read talk about reading a dictionary.
Gideon The Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer
Pillage by Obert Skye
Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Three different authors... and so when I find myself reading the dictionary for the benefit of my E vocabulary... I have to laugh.

Success and failure

So lots of people have told me that three was the hardest when it comes to having kids.

I guess I was warned.
But do warnings really stop us from all the success and joy that could be had for a serious amount of effort?
No.
Reminds me of a sign I saw in Oregon.

Ok... good, what? am I supposed to do something?
I've been warned but I can't do anything about it because I am on the road now and can't turn around. Besides this is the road that leads to my destination, so, I go forward and appreciate the warning.
So we're adjusting.
Olea watches more movies than she used to... (which I have plans to do something about)
Zurich gets away with more because I just don't have the hands.
Genève has a diaper rash...
And that's okay.
Stretch a little.

Rocks:

Zurich has some nice bruises from his stretching...

and I lowered my own thyroid replacement because I could tell I was getting major anxiety though that may be due to current events and I just wasn't handling it well due to thyroid levels... either way:
Plants knocked over multiple times, sat on etc. by Zurich...
Then the washing machine broke and it's out of warranty. But I was sure I knew what the problem was... (according to my mother in law, I have a sixth sense) and Bless Gary for proving me right and getting the thing running again. Somehow a nursing pad got stuck in the drain pump. (and yes, that's what I told Gary I thought it was). Look how much fun he's having! yay.

Everyone crying at the same time.
Lots of things going undone for days...
Not getting dinner made
I could go on, but anyone who has kids or ever been around kids for a period of time can imagine what else has stressed me the past weeks.

But I am grateful:

Even if they don't say it....