Happy April Fool's Sept '07!

[~Katie~]

No pranks on me yet today. I did yell at a lady in the grocery store parking lot because she wouldn't stop beeping at me while I was putting the kids in the car and she wanted my parking spot. That was kind of amusing. I even managed not to swear at her, how very un-NY of me

Hurray that April is finally here!

[mommajb]

subbing in...

[HeatherB]

[mommajb]

Back to the chicken thing. Alice came home from school saying they learned you can dye a chick by dying its shell before it hatches. Do you think they will do this tomorrow with the eggs they are incubating?

[Plaid Leopard]

Happy April everyone!

Yann has finally gotten over a nasty stomach bug - vomiting for a couple of days and diarrhea for a week. Thankfully he would run to the toilet whenever he needed to throw up or poop so there wasn't a lot of extra laundry and clean up. (Gotta look at the bright side). He's still not eating much, but at least he was able to BF the whole time. He lost so much weight though and it makes me sad. When my oldest ds was 16 months he had rotavirus and went from an already small 19lbs to just under 16lbs. He has been super-skinny ever since. I hope Yann can put the weight back on.

I just got over another cold. I never used to get sick but ever since we have been here in England I have been getting sick a lot. Maybe it's all the rain and damp? Stress?


None of my kids have had chicken pox, even though they have definitely been exposed. I'm hoping that somehow they have immunity or had a sub-clinical case. I really would like them to have it and get it over with though. The CP vaccine is not given routinely over here, so I thought they would have more chances of catching it but maybe our social circle is too limited.

Less than 2 weeks and I will be in sunny Texas!!!! Yeehaw!

[Faliciagayle]

Forgot it was April 1 today... no pranks to speak of. I preferred last years MDC April Fool's. Straight up thought I got myself my first DDDDC.

Worried about C. relating to I. I see photos of my friends with children of similar ages and their bigger kids are way into the little one. I know no one posts pictures of their children while crying or hitting, but still, I find little comfort in comparing myself or my children

I. does this thing where he brings his mouth off my breast to smile the sweetest, most contented, beautiful smile, then his eyes flutter, he coos, and he tucks back into his meal.


mJB - Thank you! I posted on FB but I don't know if you saw it I've been thinking about the quote since I read it and I hope to practice that soon

Laughed out loud at your chicken comment, Jeanine. I am so happy you found peace in the answer.

[*jeanine*]

Happy April Fool's Day.
My day started out with a 6:10 am phone call from the security company saying there was motion in the hallway at the office and should they call the authorities. Then we got up, got dressed etc, went to the office and everything was fine. Then we went to a loooong meeting, picked up ds from jujitsu, and got home about 6:45 pm. It's been a looong day and it's past beer o'clock. I'm bummed I'm mostly missing April Fool's here. I managed to ban myself twice last year. Hope you all had a lovely day!

[~Katie~]

Alicia - I think sibling relationships have stages. At first Liam didn't pay attention to Laine at all (an age thing, I think), then he was really interested in her and liked interacting with her (I think she became a novelty), and now he hits, pushes, etc. but they have their nice moments every once in a while. I think he does it because he feels threated by the fact that she's acting more like a kid and less like a baby, and he does it to get my attention. In any case, I think it's normal and ever-changing as children are.

Jeanine - Did they ever figure out what or who was causing it at the office?

I'm currently cleaning and re-organizing the house, also known as redeployment nesting. I got blackout curtains for the kids rooms to see if that will help with sleep, can't really tell if it makes a difference yet. I got a white noise machine for Liam as well, and used it for the first time tonight. Normally he's in and out of bed 50 times before staying there, but he actually went to bed on the first try tonight! We'll see if it makes a difference in the morning when Laine wakes up at 5:30 to nurse and he normally hears her.

[*jeanine*]

The doors were never opened. When we got there, the windows were all fine, closed and locked. No clue. The alarm company detected motion in the hallway. I wonder if a spider could have crawled over the motion detector?

[~Katie~]

Originally Posted by *jeanine*

The doors were never opened. When we got there, the windows were all fine, closed and locked. No clue. The alarm company detected motion in the hallway. I wonder if a spider could have crawled over the motion detector?

Weird, ghosts maybe?

Speaking of spiders, I killed a black widow in the kitchen today. She was pretty huge. I didn't see the orange on her back until I killed her but I don't take chances with any spiders around here. I wish there was a way to get them to stay away.

[*jeanine*]

I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I figured out what postcards to send. "Time to make your dental appointment!" That would have been so freakin' funny if I mailed them to you and had them arrive yesterday.
But since I'm too late for April's Fool's postcards I'll have to figure out something else.

[Plaid Leopard]

black widow???!!!!! shudder

I had this great idea that I was going to paint a postcard for each of you. I got out the paints, got started, made a big mess - and I think I am going to have to rethink that idea. Maybe next time.

[Sabo]

Oh my! Black widow; makes me glad that I live in NY.

I've been busy planning our first vegetable garden (anyone with tips is welcomed to share). Aili helped me to start some seeds the other day. We had such a fun and busy weekend, playing in the backyard, going on an Easter egg hunt, and we went to great grandma's house yesterday. She slept like a rock last night.

mommajb, could you send me a green and purple chick? I'm sure that it would be adorable. Kids' logic is funny. When my youngest sister was born, the children in my other sister's kindergarten class thought that the baby would look weird, like be spotted or striped or something b/c we were biracial kids . . . you know how a fawn has spots that disappear as he/she gets older, maybe that's what they were thinking.

All right, gotta work. Happy spring everyone!

[leanbh]

this week, my baby is the size of an average rutabaga. WHAT? why the heck do the pregnancy email people keep comparing the size of my unborn child to vegetables and fruits? last week, in case you missed it, it was an ear of corn.

[~Katie~]

Originally Posted by leanbh

this week, my baby is the size of an average rutabaga. WHAT? why the heck do the pregnancy email people keep comparing the size of my unborn child to vegetables and fruits? last week, in case you missed it, it was an ear of corn.

I remember seeing that when I was pregnant with Laine. Is that in weight or length or what?

The white noise machine is proving very effective. That, or the later bedtime due to the sun going down later. We're not having 50 trips up and down the stairs because he doesn't want to go to sleep at least, more like one or two. I have to take him back to the orthopedic clinic tomorrow because part of his cast around his thumb pulled away and unraveled. Not enough to influence healing but I'm worried he'll start pulling on it so it's best just to get it fixed now.

[mommajb]

Katie, I am so excited for you!

leanbh, I sure hope that babe you are carrying is smarter than your average vegetable.

[HeatherB]

This has basically been an awful week. DH left town for business. Within hours, the boys had nearly caused permanent injury to Judah. (Accidental, but would have been absolutely horrible, nonetheless.) Thankfully, Judah escaped with but a bloody scratch, and is fine now. The week hasn't improved all that much, though.

I'm feeling awful most of the time (yay for being pg). I know it means baby is doing well. It also means I'm getting little to no time for ME, to rest, recuperate, de-stress, etc. The boys have been pretty combative and argumentative the whole week. And did I mention I'm stressed? Über stressed about everything, and I feel so nauseous I can't take the supplements that typically help the anxiety.

DH is coming home tonight, but last night was a jerk about what a rough week it's been. I'm hoping he comes to his senses before he gets home in the middle of the night.

Tomorrow we're supposed to go work on a contract with a new home builder that should get us into a new house that would be awesome, and we'd be in in 6 months - so at 8 months pg. I'm okay with the timing, assuming everything (including selling this house) works out. But I also feel clueless as to the whole process - both selling and building. And I haven't gotten our taxes together to take to the CPA. I need to know how much we get back so we can apply that to the house, too. (And since I made some major mistakes last year, I'm also worried that we won't get as much back...)

Oh, and we came home yesterday to a notice about trash up by our garage (detached, away from the street)... The neighbor's dog keeps tearing up our trash and making a mess. Sunday they literally knocked over the whole trash can and strewed stuff everywhere. So I had the boys work on that - which took forEVER because they didn't actually do the work when I asked them to.

Anyway.... I am hoping for NO STRESS next week. I'm going to Philly for the Midwifery Today conference - just the two pre-conference days, actually, so I won't see the big names, but I should have a great time. Long days, but I'll sleep ALONE, so that should be good!

For now, I have to go get the house cleaned up somewhat... Someone's coming to bring boxes, and the realtor wants to drop off paperwork... And I need to try choking down more of my "happy pills."

/vent

I hope everyone else is doing VERY well!

Where's the "stressball" smilie?!

[~Katie~]

Heather. I hope the conference helps you to de-stress a bit and your weekend goes better.

[HeatherB]

Katie. I can't imagine! I don't suppose you can really say/do much when things go bad in a hierarchy like the army, either, can you? I hope he is home VERY soon and gets some clarity on what to do in the future.

I talked for a bit to my realtor, and she's confident we won't have a problem with getting the house listed and sold, even though I've had nay-sayers say it could be a problem, and I've had plenty of questions myself. Like, what we if we have to invest so much in this house to get it ready to sell that we don't have enough to pay closing costs on the new house? But, she doesn't seem concerned at all. Granted, she hasn't seen the house yet, but *most* of what needs to be done is cosmetic. Most. Not all.

Anyway, just took a boatload of fish oil, a mood supplement, and enjoying a vitamin D dot. Judah went to sleep while we waited for a friend to bring a BOATLOAD of boxes over. I'm totally laughing, too, 'cause they're all from Williams-Sonoma, so it's Cuisinart, All-Clad, Nespresso, other brands I've never even heard of. Everyone knows my DH is a coffee snob, and has high taste in pretty much everything including cooking gadgets. So when we move, it will be very funny to see their reactions to carrying all of these high-end kitchen boxes!

[leanbh]

katie, i totally understand. my dad was dealt some despicable hands in his 22 years in the air force. it can be really rough on the family. you are in our thoughts to have your family reunited safely soon.

despite the rain on top of last week's floods (we're in rhode island, btw), we're doing ok. getting anywhere takes longer because there are some roads that are still closed. but roisin is enjoying a day of lounging and watching princess and the frog.

so, after a week of horrible sleep for all three of us, we need to start getting ro to sleep in her bed all night. any pointers? right now, she'll go to sleep in her bed and stay there for two to three hours. after that, she wants into our bed, and with my growing belly and trev's bad back and the new arrival in a few months... we can't have her in there all night. she kicks HARD. i need help! i don't even know where to start with this.