Patrick is sick.

So, Saturday evening Patrick woke up from his evening nap with a fever of 102.1.  I gave him some ibuprofin and it went down and I was hoping he could hold out until today when he had a wellcheck scheduled.

Sunday he and I stayed home from church and I battled his horribly runny nose.

So, then I took him to the doctor today.  Good news?  It's not the flu.  He had a fever of 101.6 at the time (I hadn't given him any meds since 5am so that they could get an accurate picture of what was going on), so she gave him some tylenol.

Long story short, the flu test was negative and she couldn't find an ear infection or anything in his throat, so it's probably just a virus.  He also apparently got some snot in his eye while rubbing his face because he's got an eye infection starting.  So now he has eyedrops.

He also lost 3 lbs from 6 months.  He's 19lbs4oz and 28.5 inches.  Since he gained 2.5 inches and looks like he's thriving in every other way (besides being sick anyway), she's not extremely worried.  It's probably because he's not only started crawling, but is also cruising.  But she wants me to go back so she can check on him again in 2 weeks (and get flu shots), so she'll weigh him again then to make sure he's not losing more.  And I'm supposed to feed him alot.  lol

Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas

So, we had our friends David and Aubrey and their girls Myla and Savannah over for Thanksgiving.  Aubrey and I had playdates at least 2 or 3 times a week before we moved to Denver.  Then David got a job in Lamar (3 hours south of us) this fall, so we were able to have them close-ish again!  And I forgot to take out my camera the whole time so I'm glad that Aubrey took some pictures!

This is Erin and Myla watching a movie while Thanksgiving dinner cooks.

And this is how Patrick spent his first Thanksgiving (we didn't get any shots of us at the table)

After dinner Erin found Patrick's hat and was goofing off.

And Patrick came to cuddle

After his bath Patrick decided to play a video game (he's starting early)

The next day was Aubrey's birthday and she got breakfast in bed

We took all the babies for a walk down to the playground, and of course forgot the camera.  And since we didn't have the camera, Erin decided that she could climb all the way up the ladder by herself and go down the slide by herself too.  Gah!  I'm so proud of her!

Then we came back and had lunch and I discovered why Aubrey never gives Myla sauce with her chicken nuggets

 After they were all cleaned up though, they decided to lay down together.

Erin was really sad to have her friends leave today.  I think she missed Aubrey the most though.  She cried for 15 minutes after we said goodbye this morning!!

After we put the babies down to sleep, I put out the Christmas decorations.

So grown up! and squishy faced smiles

I can't believe how fast Erin is growing up.  Sometimes when I look at her I can't see any baby left in her.  Yesterday was one of those times.  I put her hair into a ponytail and she wasn't a baby girl anymore.

And I lucked out when I was taking pictures of her.  I decided to take one of Patrick too, and he squished his face right as I was taking it.  Proves that you can't ever get it when you try!  I'm so in love with this little boy!

Ornaments and the Science Museum

So, this will be 2 posts in one, but you can handle that right?  It means more pictures!

So I bought a little kit the other day.  It was 3 wooden ornaments with markers to color them instead of paints.  I thought it would be cute if the kids' ornaments this year were a little more personal, and loved the idea of Erin coloring her own.  So then Matt colored Patrick's and I colored the extra one.

Then today our friend Dave is having a birthday LAN party, so the Wives (Danica and Jessica) took the kids to the Museum of Science and Nature.  It was actually quite a lot of fun.  It was great to get to spend time with the girls for a while, and the kids actually behaved amazingly well. 

First we went to the space display where Patrick played with moon rocks

and Erin flew a space shuttle

And then we went to the Discovery Health display, where they had a little nature walk section

and then we went to the kids play area

 It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we went.

Oh Christmas tree!!

So, I decided to put the tree up yesterday.  We haven't really decorated it yet, just put on the couple ornaments that are new at the moment.  They loved it.  It's going to be a struggle to keep Patrick out of it though!!

Just to make you laugh.

Erin's new trick.

The joy of having TWO

Erin went into the bedroom to play, and Patrick followed here in.  It sounded like they were having a great time.  And then it got very quiet, so I decided to go investigate...

Veteran's Day

I just want to say thank you to all the vets in my family today.  You all inspire me.  I love you all.

This song is for you: American Soldier (you have to click the link since it won't let me embed it)

And the lyrics:

I’m just tryin’ to be a father, 
raise a daughter and a son
Be a lover to their mother, 
everythin’ to everyone
Up and at ‘em bright and early, 
I’m all business in my suit
Yeah I’m dressed up for success, 
from my head down to my boots
I don’t do it for money, 
there’s bills I that I can’t pay
I don’t do it for the glory, 
I just do it anyway
Providing for our future’s 
my responsibility
Yeah I’m real good under pressure, 
being all that I can be
And I can’t call in sick on Mondays 
when the weekend’s been too strong
I just work straight through the holidays, 
and sometimes all night long
You can bet that I stand ready, 
when the wolf growls at the door
Hey I’m solid, hey I’m steady, 
hey I’m true down to the core.

And I will always do my duty 
no matter what the price
I’ve counted up the cost, 
I know the sacrifice
Oh and I don’t want to die for you, 
but if dyin’s asked of me
I’ll bear that cross with honor, 
cause freedom don’t come free.

I’m an American Soldier 
an American
Beside my brothers and my sisters, 
I will proudly take a stand
When liberty’s in jeopardy, 
I will always do what’s right
I’m out here on the front lines, 
sleep in peace tonight
American Soldier, 
I’m and American Soldier.

An American Soldier 
an American
Beside my brothers and my sisters, 
I will proudly take a stand
When liberty’s in jeopardy, 
I will always do what’s right
I’m out here on the front lines, 
sleep in peace tonight
American Soldier, I’m an American, 
an American, an American Soldier. 

Maternal guilt

Why do we do this to ourselves? It seems like I can't do anything without feeling guilt of some sort.

Patrick had macaroni and cheese for the first time for lunch yesterday, and he LOVED it. And as I was laughing at him while watching him eat, I felt guilty for not giving him something healthier to eat.

Erin's been very cranky lately, and I've been having headaches again (I think they're hormonal, and I think my body is trying to come out of stasis). The two are not a good combination. I hate to say it, but there's been a fair amount of yelling going on...on BOTH sides. Erin yells at me just as much. I feel guilty about that, I do, and I'm really trying to be better.

I'm trying to get out of my head. I think it's so easy for mothers to feel so guilty about not doing everything right. I think it's easy to forget that imperfection is part of being human and that our little failures aren't the important thing, the important thing is the effort to improve ourselves.

Anyway, this is more of a vent than anything. Just trying to get myself to stop dwelling on the things that I do WRONG and start thinking about the things that I do right. My kids are happy and healthy, I must not be doing too terrible of a job, right?

Little People Nativity

So, Erin was singing/humming along to the music on the Little People Nativity, so I tried to catch a vid. And of course she stopped the moment she heard the camera beep when I stared recording.

But it's cute anyway. ((she comforts Baby Jesus because he's sad))

A blog for Cora

I just thought I'd let everyone know that I've started a blog for Cora. I decided I needed a place where I could express anything I needed to say without worrying someone.

If you're interested then you can go here: Loving Cora Rei

Erinisms

I spend quite a bit of my time laughing at Erin and the things that come out of her mouth. I definitely have to watch myself around her because everything she hears is regurgitated at some point.

She loves to identify things. Everything gets named. When she walks into the room, she'll let you know who is in the room: Iss MOM! Iss Dah-ee! Issa BAY-bee! She'll also let you know what she's playing with: Iss bunny! Issa bee-oh!

She can identify vehicles outside by their sounds, which is fun. She's always asking what different things are, when they aren't a car, a truck, or a bus. We passed a white van the other day (carpet cleaners) on our walk and she looked me and said "Whass dis? A car-bus?" I was impressed that she had the imagination to combine the two! "That's true, it is a car-bus!" I said, "It's called a van. Can you say van?" She answered "Wwwwwan!" She's still having trouble with her v's lol.

She's also getting good at numbers. At least one and two and occasionally three. Two to her right now is just "more than one" but is more often becoming just two of something. Oh our walk yesterday she was pushing her little stroller and I had Patrick in mine and we were walking next to each other and she said "Two Mom! Two trowwer!"

She can readily identify characters on movies, too, which I think is great. On Monsters Vs. Aliens, she calls Susan "Moosen" and is always asking "Moosen moomie Mom? Watch Moosen moomie? Moosen. Moomie. Watch." She has trouble with words that are more than 3 syllables so while she can say Derek and B.O.B.'s names fine, Insectosaurus is simply "Sowwus" and Galaxar is "Gee-yar."

She's also good at identifying emotions, sadness being the most obvious one. "Moosen sad" and "Gee-yar sad." When she's in trouble and starts crying (she's a drama queen and cries over everything), she'll also let me know. "I sad! Mom, I sad!" To which I have to respond, "That's because you did something you weren't supposed to sweetie. If you don't do things you aren't supposed to, then you won't be sad."

She used to get in my way when I as walking around all the time, so I used to step on her quite often, by accident. And whenever she got hurt, I'd always tell her I was sorry. So now she's gotten it in her head that "I'm sorry" means that she hurts. So when something happens she looks at you with those big eyes and says "I sowwwy! Hurt?" Usually I can get her to tell me what hurts too. The other day I cut my finger and had a bandaid on it and she said to me "I sowwy! Hand? Hurt?" When I told her, yes, I'd heart my finger, she said "Tisses!" and proceeded to kiss my finger.

I love that she's getting so good at communicating things. The other day I was taking too long getting dinner together and she got up to the table herself and told me "Hun-wee Mom! Hun-wee! Food peeze!"

And just yesterday she said something that has been making me randomly laugh since. She got a couple small tubs of play-doh at Matt's office party and I was letting her play with them. She pulled a bit out and asked "Canee?" "No, it's not candy," I responded. "You don't eat it."

So then she told me, "Iss not canee. Iss POOP!"

Pregnancy envy

Yeah, you read that right.  I'm starting to get pregnancy envy.  NO I am not going to be trying to conceive any time soon.  I'm still nursing, so my body still isn't mine yet.  I'd like to have my body to myself for a while.  Plus I'm REALLY not ready for the pukefest to start again.

But I do miss the attention and excitement.  It's totally a vain thing, I admit it.  I miss the smiles from the old ladies, and people telling me I'm so cute.  I love that my babies are adorable and get attention, but sometimes I feel invisible.  See?  Vanity.  Pure vanity.

And then there's the part of feeling like something is missing.  The unfortunate part of that feeling is that something IS missing, and getting pregnant again isn't going to fix it.  I look at my future, and I can't help but wonder if I will always have that longing for "one more."  Probably, since it's not really another one I want, it's the other one.

I was watching the video I made for Cora the other day.  I don't do it often, but it was November 2, which is Cora's half birthday.  I watch that video once every 6 months.  Erin came and climbed into my lap and said "Baby?"
"Yes, that's Cora," I answered.  "She's your sister."
"Cowwwa, sistoh."  Which of course made me tear up.  I really wish she could have known Cora.  I really wish I could have known Cora.  So then Erin looked at me and touched my cheek.  "Sad?" she said.  "No sad. Cowwwa.  Sistoh."
It was so sweet.  I was a reminder I needed.  Cora will always be Erin's sister, and wouldn't want me to be sad.  We will have the chance to get to know her some day, and I look forward to the day that my family will all be together, whole and complete.  I'm so glad to know, not just believe but truly KNOW that I'll get to hold my baby girl again.

ABC Zoo game

So, there's this online game that Erin absolutely loves.  When you push a key, the letter comes up and says the letter and an animal and the animal makes a sound.  Erin LOVES it.

And a bonus of Patrick just for fun!

Pioneer Halloween party

Friday morning the kids and I drove downtown to Matt's work party. Erin got to trick-or-treat from office to office (and got enough candy that we decided not to go out on Saturday night).

And then they had a costume parade for the kids. Patrick didn't participate because he was getting overheated in his costume.