Good on the ego!

Last night I was lying on the couch as Brecca was getting out of the bathroom. I told her to come lay with me. She said she couldn't because she was all wet. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: It's ok. You can still lay with me. I have been wet before, ya know?

Brecca: Yeah, you have went swimming once or twice.

Me: I used to go swimming all of the time. But then I had you and Braylee and Brax and now I just don't like to get in a bathing suit! (I know - probably not the best thing to tell a 6 yr old!)

Brecca: Why?

Me: Because then everyone can see how fat I am!

Brecca: But Mommy, everyone already knows how fat you are!


Brax went home with Nanny last night and since I am not subbing today, I kept Braylee home with me. The two of us are going to go to the Elementary School and eat lunch with Brecca today. Brecca tells me this morning to make sure that I shower and put on nice clothes before I come to her school! Thanks Brec!

A couple of funny things happened on the short trip taking Brecca to school today as well! Brecca was reading a Fancy Nancy book aloud and read the word fantastic! I said, "Wow Brecca. You sounded out fantastic! Great job!" She says (spelling out the letters), " Yeah, F*A*N*C*Y - fantastic!"

Also, Brecca decided to wear her hair curly this morning so we put some gel in it and scrunched it all up. As we were pulling into the school parking lot to drop Brecca off, Braylee says, "Mom, wait! You forgot to brush Brecca's hair this morning!"

Wonder Hangers

Last night Braylee saw a commercial about Wonder Hangers and told Nate she wanted to buy me that for my birthday. I overheard and said, "Oh, Bray, thanks! What are Wonder Hangers?" She replies, "They are hangers that never get tangled up. They can hold five heavy coats. And they come with a light you can put in your closet or your drawer!" I think maybe Braylee has seen the Wonder Hanger commercial one too many times!

Traumatized

I thought for a few minutes the other day that I may have scarred Braylee for life. She had decided that she wanted to get her cut! Notice I said SHE decided. I want to make it clear that I did not make this decision for her!!!!! She was so excited about it! When I picked her up from the babysitter, the babysitter even told me, "Braylee is so excited to get her hair cut tonight!" We get to the shop. She is just great. Can't hardly wait until her turn. She gets up in the chair and we tell Amy how we want it cut and that Braylee would like to keep her hair (weird, I know!) and could she put it in a ponytail and cut it off so Braylee could keep the ponytail? Bad idea! Amy cuts the ponytail and Braylee starts bawling! Sobbing, could not catch her breath bawling! Needless to say, I'm sure it wasn't Amy's best haircut ever! It continued throughout the haircut and even all the way home. She wouldn't even show Nate when he got home!!!! She adjusted rather quickly though and within a couple of hours, she couldn't get enough of herself. Now she absolutely LOVES it! I have to admit that it does look pretty darn cute!!! Brecca got hers cut too but the pictures didn't turn out too well. I will take some more though and post them soon!

Update

I wanted to update everyone (Ok, maybe just the 5 people who actually read this!) on Brax's Birth-Three report. I mentioned in an earlier post that they had given him a speech test to test his articulation (actual speech sounds). She thought that he had done really well but needed to figure up his exact scores and then would let us know. She called last week and said that he is in the 62nd percentile for his age, meaning he speaks as well or better than 62% of kids his age. She also said that his age equivilent is 3 years 1 month and since he won't be three until the end of April, we were pretty impressed with that!!!! Way to go Brax!

Financial Peace

Nate and I are taking the Dave Ramsey class through our church (with a strong recommendation from my brother and his wife - thanks guys!) and are really enjoying it. We have a ways to go - ok, years - but at least (maybe) we are on our way! I have been meaning to share this for awhile (at least I am pretty sure I haven't yet) and kept forgetting so here goes.

They have a class for kids too. Kindergarten through 5th grade, I think. Since Brecca is in Kdg, this year, she gets to go while the two others stay in the nursery. They are trying to raise money to buy a tree to plant and the kids are supposed to be earning money toward it. Brecca came home with a note that said to brainstorm with your child ways for them to earn money. Brecca's response: "Why can't we just go to the bank and they'll give us money. They always give you and dad money." OK, maybe we ALL needed this class more that we thought!

This morning about 30 minutes after Nate took Braylee and Brax to the babysitters, I get a phone call from her.

Missy: UM, Lindsey, Sorry to bother you but did you see Brax's eyes this morning?

Me: (I hated to admit that I was yet to get out of bed when Nate left with them this morning but I had to!) No, he left before I got up this morning.

Missy: Well, I am pretty sure Brax has Pink Eye. Another kid had it a couple of weeks ago and I think he may have gotten it from her.

Me: OK, I'll be right there.

So, off I go to pick him up. Poor Brax! His eyes were red and watery and he looked miserable! How could my husband not have noticed this????? (OK, in his defense he is color blind and honestly can't see stuff like that. I recall a time in the sun for 8 hours asking him over and over again, "Am I getting red?" He kept telling me that I was fine. That was the worst sunburn I have ever had!) I took him to the dr. and not only does he have pink eye (which turns out isn't really a specific medical term) but also an ear infection AND a sinus infection. He acts completely fine though. Nothing seems to slow that kid down!

So, Nate and I are continuing with our plans for the weekend. We are going out to dinner with family tonight to celebrate Chelse's birthday. Happy Birthday Chelse!!!! Then tomorrow morning, we are heading to the big city to do some shopping and go out to eat for Valentines Day. We are taking the girls with us and they want to eat at Red Lobster. I'm not sure what the appeal is since they both get macaroni and cheese and I am sure it is no better than the mac and cheese anywhere else! I think the lobster tank may have something to do with it. If they only knew what those lobsters were there for! Talk about devastation!! :)

A Few Pics!

These pictures would look so much better with some green grass in the background! Hopefully it won't be too much longer. I usually love the winter but even I am ready for Spring!

Doctor, Ducks, Goats, and Kites

Braylee had to go to the doctor today. It was her 4 year old well-child visit. We are a little late, I know, but December is pretty hectic and I really didn't have any concerns that needed to be addressed immediately. The doctor thought she looked great. She was only in the 30th percentile of weight and the 50th of height but has been in that area all along so no concerns there. She does still wet the bed fairly frequently (she'll love me for writing that someday!) but that is also normal at this age. He checked her hemoglobin since she has been a little anemic since her first birthday but no results yet on that. The finger stick really hurt though! Plus she had 5 shots on top of that! Poor thing!!!

Since it was just Braylee and I today, we went to lunch when we left the doctor. She wanted a pancake and bacon (healthy lunch, huh?) and I figured after what she had just been through, I would just go with it. I had an omelet. Delicious! Then, we went to Wal-Mart and bought Valentines for the parties at daycare and school. We bought a loaf of bread for $1 and went to the park to feed the ducks. We met a family there who had a baby goat! They said he was a twin and his brother didn't survive and his mom rejected him. He was 11 days old and so tiny. Really cute though. We also saw some people there flying kites and they shared with us. It may have been Bray's first successful attempt at flying a kite so that was neat for her! We stopped for Happy Hour at Sonic before we headed home. Other than the six little pokes at the doctor's office, we had a really good day together! Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so no pictures. Braylee kept saying, "Take my picture!" It isn't very often we get time together just the two of us so we make the most of it when we can!

Land of the Living

Well, I feel like I have rejoined the land of the living! The kids were nice enough to share the flu with me and we are all just now finally on the mend.

Brecca had a birthday party last Saturday night - her first slumber party. The phone rang about 1:00am and Brecca had thrown up at the party (very unfortunate for the girl sleeping next to her! Let's just say her mom had to give her a good hair washing! :) ) Nate went and picked her up and brought her home.

About 3:30am I hear Brax crying. He has thrown up all over his bed. This continued until about 10:00am Sunday morning. Needless to say, we didn't make it to church!

Braylee had gone home with Nanny and Poppy Saturday night so I called Nanny first thing. Not a good night out there either. Braylee started throwing up about 5:30am.

I started Monday night about 10pm. I can honestly say I can't remember ever being that sick! Today (Friday) is actually the first day that I feel somewhat back to normal. Brecca was supposed to go out to Nanny and Poppy's this weekend but Poppy just called and said Nanny had started throwing up this afternoon! I feel so bad that we passed our sick germs along to her. I am sure Poppy is next. We also shared with my dad who missed a day of work this week with the same yucky stuff! Keep everyone in your prayers this weekend (especially Nanny)! It was miserable for me and I hate the thought of anyone else suffering through it.

Excellence

Brecca told me yesterday that she was going to make me a picture and she was going to write Excellence on it since I am such a good mom! I have no idea where she learned the word excellence and how she knew what it meant is beyond me. Sometimes it's the little things that mean the most! :) (I'm still waiting on the picture!)

We say bottom, not butt

This is a coversation we had in the car on the way to school today.

Brax - Mommy, we say bottom, not butt.
Brecca - Mom, Brax said butt!
Brax: I say bottom, not butt.
Brecca: No, you said butt.
Brax: Mommy, Di di (Brecca) say butt.

Finally I had to intervene!

Me: OK, we don't say butt. Nobody in this house says butt. So both of you, quit saying it!
Brax: Hey Di di, Mommy say butt. We don't say butt!

Vitamins and Paint!

I think I recall alluding to the fact that my children were behaving rather nicely in my last post. We were having a pretty good day! Notice the word WERE.

It went downhill shortly after. Who knew that our 6 year old could open the childproof lid on our chewable vitamins (with iron!). And who knew said 6 year old would give the open container of vitamins to her two year old brother for him to munch away on like candy. Luckily I wasn't far and noticed this shortly after it took place. I counted the vitamins and there were only 13 missing. We have had this new thing of vitamins for a week maybe so he couldn't have eaten too many. I would say maybe two or three max but went with 5 just to be safe. I remembered hearing somewhere that vitamins with iron were extremely toxic so I looked up the number to Poison Control. I have to admit this is not the first time I have called Poison Control. I remember something about Brecca and a jar of Bag Balm (used on cows - also good on diaper rash) but I won't go into that now. :) Luckily Brax would have had to have eaten 35 vitamins for him to have any problems and since there were only 13 missing total, we were in the clear! They did suggest that if none of our kids are anemic, then there is no reason to buy the vitamins with iron. Braylee is anemic but takes a nasty liquid supplement that there is no way anyone would ever OD on so lesson learned. Next time, no iron!

I know the picture would be more effective underneath the post but I am still having issues with that. I think, for the most part, it speaks for itself. A few words will probably sum it up. Brax upstairs, paint can under the bathroom sink - well, you know the rest! :)