In Their Own Time

Kids are funny. They never seem to do things when we want them to. With my oldest, I was always trying to "help" her to her next milestone. She was at about 6 steps, as far as walking goes, on her 1st birthday.

Now, with my youngest daughter, I was in no rush. She could take her sweet time growing up and I wouldn't worry one bit. Of course, now, at 9 months, she's already broken the "record" her biggest sister had at 1 year of age. Yesterday, I saw my baby girl take 10 steps in a row completely unassisted.

Then there's this bouncer I got her when she was little. My son loved his bouncer so I figured I'd get a cute one for her too. She couldn't use the one my son had because my older kids used to like to sit in it too and they sort of broke it. So a new bouncer it was for my baby.

Before she was born I saw the cutest pink bouncer! So when I saw a gently used one at a garage sale when she was a few months old, I had to get it. Of course, my little one didn't think as highly of it as I did. She never stayed in it for long (unlike my son in his bouncer) and I seriously was going to throw this thing away.

But of course, now that she's mobile and can go places on her own, she LIKES to climb into her bouncer and cruise in it. Go figure. I have a twit pic of her in it.



Now my oldest DD wants to potty train her. Maybe I should have her read some EC articles.

What Is Gas Like In Your Home Town?

Gas prices have gotten unbelievable recently! We're paying about $4.55 per gallon and some of the pumps have a $75 limit for credit/debit card transactions at the pump. That's not even enough to fill up my gas tank if I let it get too low. Others have limits set at $99 and if I'm really bad and let my tank get really low, THAT doesn't even fill up my tank. Yes, I'm driving a full size SUV. It's the only thing we can all fit into since my husband refuses to drive a mini van. *sigh*

I really do need to try to fill up when my tank is around the half full point, but it's tough when your schedule is tight. Anyway - I'm just curious as to what you're paying for gas.

Also, have you heard about some of the strategies for saving on gas like filling up at certain times of the day or running your car on water?????

This report of Gas Saving Tips shares some information on when to fill up, which cars are the most efficient in each car category, plus your standard tips on how to use less gas. If you're in the market for a new car, you'll definitely want to check out which cars are the most fuel efficient.

When I told my oldest daughter how much I think it would cost to fill up a tank of gas by the time she's an adult and has some kids, she said that she was going to be buying her kids bikes. LOL - not a bad idea...

Lots of Clutter = No Relaxation

After a very busy summer of softball, softball, and more softball, the season is winding down and the kids are back to school. Once I actually had some time off on the weekends and could spend time at home, I realized how cluttered and disorganized the house had become during all those months we were barely home. Yuck!

I don't know about you, but there are times I simply CAN'T relax when the house is turned upside down. I also find that I clean best when I'm mad for some reason. So one day I was in "that mood" and we sure got a lot done. It's surprising how HUGE a housekeeping job can look, yet when I spend just ONE straight hour of cleaning or straightening up, it can make such a big difference!

Unfortunately, I'm not one that LIKES to clean, yet I can't stand the way my house is when it's cluttered, disorganized, and just a plain mess. With 5 kids, this happens quite often. BUT, I'm going to TRY to dedicate and least ONE solid hour of cleaning each week. I know, not much, but I have to start somewhere. Like I said, when I'm focused for that one hour, I can get quite a bit done. So I'm going to start there.

I can't just wait until I'm mad to clean house LOL. I try not to get that mad that often, so I can't rely on those times for keeping my house in order.

However, I did come across this free report "How to Declutter and Organize Your Home" and will do my best to implement some of the 15 steps to a clutter free home from that report. Some of you may fair better than I do with it, but it's worth a shot.

Here's to a clutter free house! (Is it truly possible with 5 kids under the age of 12?)

Got the Lil Dipper

I saw this at the store the other day and thought it was such a cute idea and perfect for my daughter. She is now 8 months old and very interested in eating "real" food (vs nursing). She also likes to grab at what we eat and gets so ecited when she sees her spoons.

Of course, she's not all that great at feeding herself, but when I saw these, I thought they were such a great idea for this age my daughter is at. I don't remember seeing these when my other kids were younger. At any rate, I bought a pack of these Lil' Dippers for my daughter and let her try it out last night. So far she loves holding it and putting it in her mouth, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of dipping it in her food then putting it in her mouth. I'm looking forward to watching her figure it out though.

Well, off to give it another try. I think she's about ready to have some baby food for breakfast!

Surprised at Myself

I did a post a about a month and a half ago asking "How do you know when you're done having kids?" Well...(no, I'm not pregnant)....I just had the privilege of being present at the birth of my sister's very first child. My sister is 8 years younger than me and my one and only full blooded sibling.

First of all, I have to say, she did great! She delivered her son after about 9 hours of labor and with no drugs. She did have to work quite a bit to get the little guy out, he made her push for over an hour. There were a couple of worrisome moments when it looked like baby's heart-rate was dropping and my sisters was as fast as a fetus' should be. The tried having her change positions a bunch of times, they tried monitoring baby's heart with that thing they stick on baby's head (sorry, can't remember what it's called right now), and at one point they even brought in an ultrasound machine because they couldn't pick up baby's heart-rate as well as they wanted to with those other monitors. I was really worried about the baby at that point, but kept telling my sister that she was doing really great and in the end, they both were just fine.

But why am I surprised at myself? Because I was thinking that being part of the miracle of my nephews birth would cause me to want to have another baby. Contrary to what I expected, it did NOT have that effect at all. It did have the effect on another person in the delivery room that way, but it just didn't bring up those "Oh, I want another one" feeling for me. That surprises me.

I don't know that this shuts the door completely because I'm still not quite ready to just close that chapter of my life, but I just found it interesting that being there with my sister didn't give me "baby fever" again. Hmmm...

Yikes 103.3

It's late, I just got home from the ER. My youngest daughter, who is now 7 months old, had a fever of 103.3 degrees tonight. She was warm on a few occasions last week, but always, the next day or two she was back to normal. She isn't congested, isn't coughing, has no runny nose, is "peeing and pooping" fine, has a normal appetite, and has been acting pretty normally as well.

But after her afternoon nap today, she woke up feeling warm. I didn't think too much of it because she had been fine in the morning and she was still acting quite normal. But after dinner I picked her up to nurse her whole body, arms, legs, hands and all just felt way too warm for my liking.

I had my oldest daughter get our thermometer out and took her temperature under her arm. It was 101.7. I knew her temperature would be up, but I wasn't thinking it would be that high. I also know that taking a baby's temp under the arm usually gives a read out of about 1 degree BELOW actual temperature, so that's when I decided to just take her in and see what was going on.

The ER dr said her ears, throat, and chest were all fine. He didn't see any rashes on her and basically didn't see anything "alarming" that he could attribute her fever to. They gave her some medicine for her fever while we were there and by the time we left her temperature had gone down a bit to 102.9.

We were discharged with instructions to give her fever reducing medicines to help with her temperature and to follow up with our regular dr in a few days. It's a bit annoying that the ER dr couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know. But at that same time, I'm glad to know that it's not something really serious and I wasn't ignoring/missing some sign that my baby was really sick. So now it's time for bed for all of us. It's times like these I'm glad I don't work outside the home - I'm thinking tomorrow will be a rest/take care of baby (and mom) day.

Of Course It's "Da-Da"

So, my daughter if finally making all kinds of cute little sounds on purpose now. She's 7 months old. And, of course, it's "Da-Da" first. What's up with that? Why is it that they always say "Da-Da" before "Ma-Ma?"

Of course, my husband is happy about it and my daughter always has this big, teasing smile on her face when she says it as if she's saying "Da-Da" instead of "Ma-Ma" on purpose simply because I'm trying to teach her "Ma-Ma."

Then my son doesn't help any because he's encouraging her to say, "Da-Da" which in turn gets him praise from my husband. It's a conspiracy I tell ya.

As a side note, we did some straightening up of some areas in our house and in my car and found a number of diaper stashes - all size 2. As you may guess, knowing that my daughter is 7 months old, she doesn't exactly fit size 2. I suppose I should give them all to my sister. Her son, who has yet to be born, won't need them for a while, but *maybe* they'll have a chance at being used if I give them to her.

I Need a Weekend...

...to recover from my weekend. It seems there is no in between. Either I have NOTHING going on during the weekend and we're bored. OR we are twice as busy on the weekend as we are during the week.

This weekend was crazy! My oldest had a sleepover, so 3 girls from her softball team came home with us Friday night after practice. Then I the softball team I coach had a pre-season scrimmage against a mainland team on Saturday. So we played for about 2 hours, then had a potluck with them afterwards which means we were at the field from about 9:30-3:00.

Then we went home and cleaned up because my husband invited his co-workers over to the house (they've been bugging him about when they'd finally get to see it). I also invited softball people over and we called the dog friends we have too. Everyone arrived right around 6:30-7:00 and the last of the visitors didn't leave until after 1:00am.

Thankfully we catered food so I didn't have to cook, but 2 of the 3 sleepover girls were still with us. In fact, 2 of them stayed over again and rode with us to their game on Sunday.

Sunday morning I had to head to the high school field again because we were filming some of the girls and helping them put together videos to send to college coaches. I left that field at about 11:00 to go catch my daughter's game on the other side of the island. So again, I was at a softball field for a total of about 6 hours. That's a lot of sun! We were all so tired after my daughter's game that we took a nice 3 hour nap when we got home!

My kids are already on spring break so I got to sleep in a little this morning. My oldest daughter still has school this week, but since she does distance learning, we don't have to wake up early.

Hopefully, I'm recovered and rested by the time Saturday rolls around again.

The Bumbo is So Cute

That's a picture of my daughter in her new Bumbo Seat. It's such a cute seat for her to be in during the times of the day I can't hold her and laying down in her crib or play pen is just too boring. It seems like she doesn't quite know what to make of it just yet, but I think she likes the new perspective. It just so happened that the only Bumbo left at the store I went to was pink, but it does come in other colors too.

The box says that it's for ages 3 months - 14 months. My daughter just made 3 months earlier this month, so we'll get "full" use of this Bumbo. My 3-year-old son has put his butt in it a couple times when his sister wasn't in it. I guess he wanted to check out his sister's cool new chair. I was surprised that he actually fit in it. I was a little worried about my daughter fitting in it when she got older, but if my son can squeeze his 3 year old booty in it, I'm sure she'll still be able to sit in it at 14 months.

Anyway - One of the cute things I noticed was her checking out her feet...see?

Well...At Least I Get the Day Off

We just finished a long tiring weekend. I coach softball at a nearby high school and we were running a tournament for the weekend. So that means we got home late Friday and Saturday and were up early both days of the weekend to get to the field in time to help set up the fields and the concession. After all day at the park on Saturday (8:00am-9:30pm), we had to be back at the field at 7:00am on Sunday. With a number of dogs to take care of, that means we had to get up at 5:00 in the morning to let our dogs out and give them water and feed them and everything before we left for the day. I know this doesn't sound like a day off...but I'm getting to that part.

By the time we were done on Sunday (thankfully it wasn't an all day affair again) we were soooo tired. We got home at about 3:00pm and all took a nap. We had planned to get up at 5:00pm to do our thing with the dogs, take a shower, and then go out to eat (heck if I was going to cook). BUT, we didn't get up until 7:30! Even the baby was fast asleep still and she would have been fine if we didn't wake 'till morning I think. BUT, I was getting hungry and I knew if we didn't go out with the dogs, my husband would have a mess to deal with in the morning. According to him though, he would have been fine with the trade off. He wouldn't have minded one bit if I just let him sleep 'till morning. Now, I'm almost to the part where I get the day off.

Even though we got up late, we still took care of our dogs and went out to eat. Dinner was fabulous and so was the ice cold water we got to drink throughout dinner. Two days in the sun makes water taste wonderful! Anyway - on to the day off.

My husband wakes up a few hours earlier than we do to go to work. After he left, I was just about falling asleep when he called to ask what debit card he can use to put gas in his truck. I give him his answer and try to go back to sleep. Again, I'm just about falling asleep and he calls again. WTH? He knows how much I love my sleep. Especially after a long, tiring weekend. Here's where I get the day off. He called to tell me that the keys for my car are in his truck. I have no idea how they got there, but they are there. Soooo, that means I don't have a way to get the kids to school this morning or a way to run any errands. I got to sleep in a little and I get to stay home allllll day! Maybe I'll get some much needed laundry done. :)

Give Me My Sunglasses

One day I bought my son (age 3) Cars sunglasses. My son LOVES Cars. So anyway, he was wearing all over the place that day while we were running errands. Eventually, we got hungry and sat down to eat lunch at a restaurant (indoors). While we were eating, my son took off his new sunglasses and put them on the table. His oldest sister (age 11) decide to make trouble and steal the sunglasses and put it on her head.

My son didn't really notice, but I saw what happened to so I told him, "Your sister took your glasses."

He looked over and saw his glasses on his sister's head and immediately demanded her to give them back. However, my daughter was in a rascal mood, so she was giving him a hard time. He tried to take them off her head, but she moved away. He wasn't up for her games, so he points toward a window and tells her, "Hellooooo! Can't you see all the sun in my eye?"

My daughter and I were cracking up laughing. We were indoors and there was certainly no sun in his eyes and he hadn't worn the glasses the whole time we were in the restaurant. He didn't put them on after he got them back either. He just put them back on the table and kept a closer eye on them.

I Want "Awfuls!"

One morning my oldest daughter wanted Eggo's for breakfast. So I put a few in the toaster oven for her while she started on her school work for the day (she does distance learning). My 3-year-old son hears the toaster oven timer ticking and decides to check it out. He sees the Eggo's in the toaster oven and, since he can't quite see over the counter and into the toaster oven very well, he asks me what I'm making. I tell him, "I'm making waffles."

He gets all excited and says, "Ooooh awfuls! I want awfuls!"

Fun Site for Expectant Parents

You know how toward the end of a pregnancy friends and family like to make guesses about baby's birthdate, weight, gender, and other stats? Some couples actually run pools for their family or friends at work. We'll, I just found out about a website that allows you to keep track of all these guesses so that there is no mistake about who guessed what and who came the closest to the actual stats. Also, this site gives you a way to determine a winner (by point system) if you don't already have one. They have both a free and paid version, but for me, the freebie version is enough.

So, just for fun I set up a guessing game for my friends, family, and internet acquaintances. To see what a game looks like or to play mine, click on the banner below.

Gotta See Mom Song

Can't believe I haven't seen this 'till today....had to share....

Check out this video: For Moms



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Just One Week To Go

...until our family vacation! The kids are getting excited and I can't wait to go. My husband is already counting down the number of work days he has left before we leave on our trip to Disney World. My son LOVES watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I think he'll go NUTS when we get there and he sees all the Mickey stuff. Of course, he doesn't like the guy walking around in the Chuck E suit at Chuck E Cheese, so maybe he'll be a little scared of the characters walking around, but I think he'll enjoy everything else.

I'm taking a 1GB memory stick for my camera AND my husband also wants to take the video camera. Luckily they are both kind of small so I don't think we'll have a problem carrying them around. I was planning on downloading pics to my laptop each night, but I tried to do that recently and for some reason my laptop isn't reading my card anymore, so I may just have to hope I have enough space or just buy another card while we're there.

The only part of the trip I'm not really looking forward to is the plane riding - it's a pretty long trip from Hawaii. Making that trip with 4 kids is going to be interesting, but we bought another portable DVD player to help keep them all occupied. OR one to keep them occupied and one for us adults to watch. We'll see how it works out. Oh and wish me luck sitting in that plane seat for hours on end while 6 1/2 months pregnant. Hopefully I'll be able to get comfy enough.

Got Our Disney Tickets!

WooHoo! We've been more or less planning this trip since we came home from our last trip to DisneyWorld 3 years ago. The kids were asking when we'd go back and we told them we'd go back in 2007. Each year they asked about it. Each year they counted how much more time until it would be 2007 and we'd get to go back to DisneyWorld.

Soooooo....We've had the airplane tickets since we did our taxes back in March. We've had the place to stay since last November because own a timeshare there near Disney and that's the earliest we could make the reservation. Last week I reserved our rental car, and today I finally picked up the last of the DisneyWorld Park Hopper passes we need for the trip AND I also picked up tickets for our family to go to Sea World in Orlando as well. I'm getting so excited. We fly out on the 6th of September, but won't get into Orlando until Friday afternoon.

I don't think the kids realize how soon the trip is. They've been busy with school. We've all been busy getting our house ready to sell and soon we'll be busy packing things up because we're in escrow and will hopefully close at the end of September. Since we don't want to have to worry about coming back home from vacation and moving, we're planning to move out on Labor Day weekend. I know the time will go fast and I better get started with our packing. Oh, and that reminds me....I also have to pick up a few more bags for luggage. One of ours broke and now we have one more child than we did the last time and the other kids are bigger so their clothes will take up more space. Eek - I better make me a "to do" list so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Doing the Distance Learning Thing

So today was Day 2 of my daughter's first experience with a new charter school here in Hawaii which offers distance learning. My daughter is in 6th grade and for elementary, parents are the primary ones who "deliver" the curriculum. Soooo, that means I get to go over the information with her, I get to tell her what to work on, and I get to give her assignments.

I was a little worried that we'd both get overwhelmed, but so far it seems to be going well. I know the more we do it, the more efficient we'll get, but so far, not so bad. Also, I LOVE knowing exactly what she is supposed to be learning and doing. Sometimes I worry that I'm making her do too much and she'll rebel. Thankfully, so far she may make small grumbling gestures here and there, but they are short lived and she's done everything I've asked. I'm surprised at how much she remembers when I ask her questions about what we've gone over.

Anyway - wish us luck. I hope this goes well because she didn't do all that great in the public elementary school. She wasn't failing, but she certainly wasn't passing with flying colors either. I know it's not because she isn't smart enough. After all, she can remember all the different things a 2nd baseman has to do in all the different situations that can possibly arise AND can actually DO them when the time comes and she only has a half second to react and do the right job for situation that presents itself. Not only that, she can work a sales booth with her grandma for hours on end, and I'm told, she doesn't miss a beat when it comes to giving change or customer's "trying things" with giving wrong payments or trying to take an extra item. So I really don't think "intelligence" per se is the problem, but I think it'll help her for me to be more involved.

We'll see as the year goes on. Of course, this adds another interesting dimension to my day. Who knows, maybe after this I'll be smarter than a 5th grader!

It Still Happens...Even Today...

...Moms die during/after childbirth.

I mean, we've all heard stories about how many women passed during or after childbirth long ago or in countries were medical care isn't what it is here. But when you hear stories of it happening in your own world, it just seems so unreal - but certainly makes you stop and think and realize just how unbelievably blessed we are to be MOMS.

Read such a mom's story at my pregnancy journal.

You Know You're a Mom When...

Recently our local newspaper ran an article that shared some thoughts from Hawaii moms on "You know you're a mom when..."

They gathered the information from HawaiiMoms.com and I just thought you'd get a kick out of reading what some Hawaii Moms had to say. You can read the article HERE.

Wanna know some of my thoughts? Here they are...

You Know You're a Mom When...

...going to the grocery store by yourself is a big treat.

...the word "No" becomes the most commonly used word in your vocabulary.

...the majority of your conversation for the day happens with people who are under the age of 5.

...you look for your kids even when they aren't with you.

...you know that a room of quiet kids often means trouble.

...the day you meet the kids named "I don't know" and "Wasn't me" they are really going to get it!

...you feel super special when you get a meal all to yourself and you don't have to share.

...you don't need an alarm clock to wake up by 7 am

How about you? Do you have some you can share?

Moms Are Not Allowed to be Sick

I don't know about you, but I don't have the time nor the energy to be sick. This weekend my entire family was vomiting. Not pretty. I'm 21 weeks pregnant and was the only one in the house that wasn't throwing up. Strange, but thank goodness it happened that way. It was still a rough weekend because my youngest, who is 2, is at that age where you just kind of have to watch them and rush them to the toilet when it looks like they may blow. They don't exactly give you a lot of warning that it's coming. Then there was the relatively sleepless first night when he was waking throughout the night as well. Thankfully, each time, we were able to get him to the bathroom in time (yes, I was sleeping quite lightly), so there was no bedding to change or clean in the middle of the night.

My husband tried to work yesterday, but ended up coming home early and stayed home today as well. We took him to the dr to get a note for work and the dr confirmed what we thought. It's a virus, which means there is no medicine and it just has to sort of "run it's course." Fortunately, it seems that my husband has reached the "turning point" for this virus and is starting to get over it.

Like I said, I don't have time to be sick. IF I were to catch this virus that's been plaguing my family it would probably be AFTER my husband goes back to work which means that I will be home alone with the kids who are on summer break. There's just no "sick leave" for moms and I know you know what I mean. So I'm hoping that I can stay healthy! I suppose it's a good thing that EVERYONE seemed to be sick at time same time, because with four kids, often times illnesses get "passed around" with everyone "taking turns" making my exposure to the illness longer than if everyone had just gotten sick at the same time and gotten over it at the same time. Plus I always worry that it'll go back around to the one who started it. Thankfully, that's never happened and I sure hope this particular virus goes away and stays away as it seems to be on it's way out for everyone.

Time Out For My Baby

I have the most wonderful little girl, she's 5 years old now and is going to start Kindergarten this September. I find it so much harder to discipline her, but I still force myself to do it. She's just so darn cute when she gets into trouble, and she is my ....

Baby :-)

My 14 year old daughter had after school activities so I had to pick her up lastnight at 9:30pm, my son came with me to go and get her. They both begged me on the way home for some chips at 7 Eleven, well I gave in. I'm such a softie.

I let them go in the store on their own with their own money. As I sat back and gazed at my 2 children, my thoughts wandered to what they looked like when they were much smaller.

My two babies are growing up, and boy is it hard to discipline the 5 year old for what seems silly to me. Like crying over not wanting to leave playtime at a friends house.

I wish I wasn't such a softie!

What Will You Do "Someday"?

As I sat down to write this post, I was thinking of all the little annoying things that we deal with on a daily basis with little kids around.

Like not being able to put our purses just anywhere because as soon as we turn our backs the 4 year old has our lip gloss all over her face and the 19 month old has thrown our debit cards and receipts all over the house.

And I thought about how when the kids grow up our lives will be so different, and what seemed important enough to be stressed about (like a clean house) suddenly isn't such a big deal anymore.

Like my Mom, who used to put me and my sister to bed and then stay up until 2 cleaning house, but who, now that we're "all grown up", can't be bothered with housework anymore because she's too tired from playing all day at the Tea Room.

So what are your Somedays?