Wednesday, July 28, 2010

My poor little girl

Ava has been sick now since Friday night. Originally it was just a little cranky and eventually turned into 103 fever. She got blisters on her bottom, and one became infected, and she couldn't sit on it at all. If I touched it (you know, when I pick her up, put her down, put her in her carseat or her high chair) she screamed bloody murder. I took her to the doctor, and it turned out she had hand, foot, mouth disease. (Which is not at all related to hoof and mouth disease!) She had blisters in her mouth, but not on her hands and feet, but on her bottom, and that was what was causing her fever. The fever is reduced now, but so far, the antibiotics haven't completely taken care of the infection on her bottom. She's adapting well, figuring out how to crawl with it, stand up, and then go back to her knees instead of her backside. And I'm adjusting too... This is how I fed her lunch on Monday...

My poor little baby girl!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Happy heart

Yesterday I got email from Abby's second grade teacher (her teacher last year). About four months ago, I wrote about how heartbroken I was for her. Her email yesterday announced a new member of the family, a baby boy who was born on July 6! While parental rights haven't been terminated yet, it is scheduled. She got to be the first to hold him, got to stay in the hospital with him, has been amazed by him. Her only lack of judgement? They named him Maxwell. Ooooh. Abby's eyes got real wide when I told her. We're sure the craziness we see in Max is a complete link to the name. I just hope Mrs. Herman knows what she's in for! In addition to this great news, she also found out she's expecting! Oh my goodness... Her Max will be 6 months old, and a new infant will come along. I don't see a lot of sleep in her future. But I do see many blessings!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Wet animals

We saw a lot of wet animals at the zoo yesterday, but the cutest by far were the drowned rats you see below!

I gotta admit, not the best day for the zoo. But Abby and my nephew Chad had zoo class, so off we went. While Abby and Chad were in class, my (very pregnant) sister and her two youngest, my dad, and me and the three littlest walked around the zoo (class is from 9:30-3:00). The morning was wet and we spent lots of time in various animal buildings. With the help of umbrellas and the beautiful ponchos you see above, we were able to keep clothes mostly dry, and we didn't have to battle many people! We actually saw more animals in the buildings than we usually do, which was nice. And I think the kids had fun anyway--at least no one complained! So overall it was a win. I just wish my feet would unwrinkle from walking in all those puddles!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Hot Hot Hot

Ok, here's my final catch-up post. It's hot. Uncomfortable hot. Humid hot. So hot that even I won't turn the air conditioning off. But, I shouldn't complain. Last year I felt like we couldn't do any fun water things during summer. This year, every day seems to involve water. Once I get out there and see the kids frollicking (really!), even I start to have fun. And Ava shares her baby pool with me sometimes.


The park by us just put in a new splash pad. Lot's of fun!

Champions


Abby's softball team took first place for the season in the league, and then turned around and won the championship tournament. They played awesome, really. They all fielded great, made great plays at first, and my gosh these girls can hit the ball. Abby caught a line drive as she played pitcher, and made great catches at first base. They only played 5 innings instead of the usual 7 because they were too far ahead. You can only get 6 runs in any inning, and the Dodgers were uncatchable. Abby was pretty even keeled about it all. I was nervous, and Dave may say he wasn't but his actions say otherwise. How many more years of this are there, times four? I may have a nervous breakdown by then!

Phone call

I forgot to mention, I got a phone call this morning from the West Bend Public Library and got my first glimpse into how I'll feel when Max hits adolescence.

Me: Hello?
Them: Hi. This is the West Bend Library. Are you Max's mom?
Me: (Panic! Maybe. Who wants to know?) Yes.
Them: He was chosen as the Reader of the Week this week. Congratulations! We have a bag of prizes for him. Will you be in this week so we can take his picture?
Me: (Whew!) Sure! I'll be in tomorrow with him.

Abby: What? I've been reading a ton every day and he doesn't even read. And he wins? Are you kidding me??
Me: Yup. Life's not fair.

I've lost my mind. Can you help me find it?

Last week we went to Pizza Hut. We had been inside for maybe 10 minutes when a guy came up to me and asked me if I owned the Honda Odyssey outside. (Uhh, yes.) My side door was open. (MAX! He's been getting out lately and not closing the door.) So, while I read Max the riot act, Abby went to shut the door. And then informed me it was Ava's door that was open. Whoops! I guess that was my fault. (A little sheepish.)

Today we were at McDonald's, and I let the kids play for awhile. We were probably there for an hour and a half. Not really a big deal, until I got back out to the van, and realized not only did I leave the keys in the van, but I LEFT THE VAN RUNNING! Aye aye aye. But they're cute mind destroyers, aren't they?

Maybe the moral of the story is I should just stop going to fast food places. But then I might go even more crazy! After McDonald's today, I took the van to get the oil changed. I went to a place I don't normally go to because they had a special for 4 oil changes for $39.95. Not a bad deal. I pull in, and they start to change the oil. But then, 40 minutes later, they're still not done. Finally, the guy tells me my oil plug is stripped and they don't have a new one. Great. So, they sent someone to CarQuest and will put in a new one. Ok. But meanwhile, I have 4 kids in the car and I can't go anywhere. Thank goodness for movies in the van! That was good for about an hour, but after that they were literally running and tackling each other IN THE VAN! That lasted for 10 minutes until I went crazy and then they watched a new movie. And inbetween all that, Abby said about 20 times, "But I just realllly want to go home." Oh, well, ok. Since you really want to.

I may have showed the pictures of Abby climbing the wall already? I don't remember. But now Nolan is doing it. And they have their standing-on-everything-audience, otherwise known as Ava, cheering them on.

Last weekend, we celebrated the last of Max's birthday, the first of Ava's birthday, my niece Erin's birthday and my dad's birthday. It was great weather for birthday celebrations, and we congregated at my mom and dad's house for a cookout.

Here's one of the birthday girls. You can tell she thinks she's special, can't you? Well, she IS!

Mark and Dave doing what they do best... Dave with beer in hand.

Ok, this wasn't from the party, but a cute picture anyway of the two girls! It must have been awhile ago, because this outfit on Ava is long sleeves and long pants. And given it's been HOT HOT HOT here for, well, forever, I'm not sure when I took this.
Back to the party... Ava enjoying her new bath toys in the little pool all by herself.

Oops! Abby and Ava again.
And back to the party... Grumpy manning the grill. Check out those legs! 

I really, really thought I put pictures in order, but apparently not. And given my less than stellar record of updating the blog lately, I'm not willing to reorder all of my pictures. SO, here's Abby and Nolan, with Ava looking on, creating various marble runs and doing just some fun, regular summertime fun stuff.
And the party continues...
One of Max's gifts was a guitar. And prior to the party, we got Karaoke for the Wii. So, here's the band. Nolan on drums, Max on guitar, Abby doing vocals. I'm guessing they're singing Taylor Swift's Love Story. Unless, of course, they're singing, ahem, I Kissed a Girl. No, I'm sure it's Love Story.
And the other birthday girl, Erin turned 4!
Chad and Abby, not celebrating birthdays, watched from the "big" pool.
Ava lovin' all the wrappings.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...

And here... is the pinata! Abby worked super hard on these. There were two pinatas, actually, made out of diaper boxes. Then they were covered with construction paper--one colored with butterflies for Erin, and one colored with sports for Max. When Abby asked me to get candy to put in them, I really, really wanted to just buy new pinatas. But she worked so hard on them, and they were so original. So I bought the candy. And you know what? The kids loved them! Here's the kids (and Uncle Mark) in line.
The booty!
The pinatas actually broke open before Abby and Chad got a chance to hit them, so we put some candy back in the box, taped it up, and let Abby have at it. Chad didn't want to hit the pinata, he just wanted to destroy the box. So, he got a box and went to town!

And the party is over. Luckily, we have fabulously fun evens like this to make up for me losing my mind the rest of the week!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Just one

Life around here has been exhausting. It feels like we always are on the go, to one softball game or another, or a tball game, or the park, or the store, library or other summertime place. It's a good exhaustion, don't get me wrong. But still, when the kids are down, there's just no energy left to clean, to write, to move. And sometimes, more and more often lately, the kids are up later than me. I try to stay up until at least Ava is down and Max has crashed, but those bigs. I think they could stay up all night. They have an 8:30 bedtime we try to stick to during the week, but oftentimes we're out until later than that, so I can't hardly make them sleep at the softball field!

Today there was just Ava and me. Dave had to work in Chicago today, so he took the big 3 down to his parent's house to swim in the pool. I would have loved to go with, but I needed to get some work today, so it was just Ava and me hanging out. She stayed up until 9:00 last night, and we just played. She finally has the crawling thing down pretty well, so she loves to crawl all over me when I'm laying on the ground. Then she heads to the entertainment center and pulls all the DVDs out. And then the toy basket and pulls all the toys out. She was much, much neater, not nearly as messy, when she couldn't crawl. (And Max was much happier, too. Now all I hear is, "No AVA! That's MY toy!") But I'm realizing I forgot what just one is like. It's certainly quieter, not everyone yelling Mommy! all at once. But it's also more difficult in that it's all me all the time. When the big kids are around, they entertain and distract her with just their being around, playing around her. And Abby will take care of her for hours for me (I can even get the lawn mowed!). But when it's just her, she expects me to entertain. I almost forgot how!

Tomorrow Abby has her last softball game. They won two playoff games and tomorrow is the final... against the only team we lost to all season. If the girls play like they did last night, they'll win no problem. Either way, I'm excited to watch them play. It's been a fun season and they've done so well. I wonder who will be more nervous, me or her? Oh, who am I kidding?? It will definitely be me!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

A Golden Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX! In so many ways, Max seems like he's been 3 forever. He follows the big kids everywhere they go, and has been telling me since April that he's 6, just like Nolan. If you ask him if he's big, he'll say "Yes, I'm a big brother!" Indeed he is. That kid is something else. Tonight, I was talking loudly to the kids (otherwise known as yelling) about why we need to have toothbrushes in our main floor half bath instead of upstairs or downstairs, in their bathrooms. (The answer, of course, is from their bathrooms they can't see tv.) Max looked at me and said, "Mommy, are you talking to me? I don't understand what you're saying." Ha! As much as he drives me crazy, he cracks me up, so he's lucky.

So, of course for Max's birthday, just like every Fourth of July, we celebrated at Dave's parent's house south of Chicago. It was a very Toy Story birthday, and Max loved it all. The birthday pics...

Ooooh, the claw!

All the kids, minus Ava.

Toy Story cake

Ava practicing for her own #1 birthday next month. Pretty good job, don't you think?

Ava learned how to crawl this weekend. And, while I won't try to tell you she crawled to Max's towel and put it on, she did indeed crawl to all the other Toy Story toys. And if she didn't get it or Max took it away, she cried. And if she did get it? Max cried and yelled, "Ava, NO! That's my toy!" Hmmm, I hear a new refrain coming into our lives.

Everyone liked the alien towel!

Max also got Candyland. It's funny because I remember trying to play with Abby when she turned 3, but there was no way. The idea of taking turns was absolutely foreign to her. Max, though, was all about it. And check out the big kids who came around and wanted to play as soon as I started playing with Max!

We had absolutely beautiful weather, each day better than the one before. It was so nice, Dave's dad actually got in his own pool with us! Ava was happy to see him!

In the end, it was just too much for Max and he crashed in the chair outside. Something tells me this may be one of his last naps.

These clothes started dry. What you can't see in this picture is Max thinking jumping in with his clothes on would be a good idea.

The Fourth of July girls! Unfortunately, Ava got sick the night before July 4 with a pretty bad cold. She missed her first fireworks (not sure she would have went anyway) and is still under the weather, but hopefully on the mend.

All the kids in red, white and blue.


That's it for the weekend. But of course, as I took pics off the camera, there were some old ones I just had to share. Here's Nolan with his first frog of summer. This was the first of hundreds by now, I should think.

Abby on one of the last days of school had to dress as her favorite book character. Miss Junie B. Jones anyone?

I don't get many pics of Nolan with Ava...

This one I just LOVE! Can you say relaxed any more than this? It's a girl after her momma's heart in the bathtub

And, the many faces of Ava...

Hope everyone had a grand Fourth of July!