I didn't buy the shirt....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    .........Grandpa and Grandma did!

The Continuing Saga

So, here's the rest of the story:

The cleaner came on Monday and had to tear up the carpet to check out the damage.  It was smelling pretty nasty by then.  He ended up having to cut out the section of padding underneath the carpet in the area by where the couch was.  The wood underneath was wet.  He cleaned the wood and the carpet backing and all of the carpet.  He didn't have the right size of padding so he came back the next day to put it in and he sprayed some more stuff to help remove the odor.  It still smells a little.  I think that if it were summer, I could open the windows and let it air out and it would be okay.  But since we have several inches of snow on the ground, that's not really an option right now.  It's not tooooo bad, but hopefully we don't have to replace the carpet.

 

 

 

Here you can see the indent of where the padding is cut out.

 

 

 

 

 

So, a few days later, Carlos gave Jaiden a gallon of milk and said, "Here, go dump this out.  I give you permission."  To which Jaiden replied something like, "No, Papi, NO!  Mommy angry!"    Ya think!?!

Oh, the fun!  I think I'm going to save the pictures and the receipts for future purposes......hmmm.....

I also re-arranged the furniture.  It's makes the living room smaller with the couch that way, but it's actually nice and cozy, so I like it.

Orange Cream Sofas

Readers Beware:  Contents of this post are not for weak stomachs and I can't promise that all will be positive and it may not be for your children's eyes!  It is also a pretty lengthy post.

First and foremost I would like to thank Joel and his latest post for some much needed comic relief at 12:30 a.m.

Second, I would like to say that I am thankful that my children are able to sleep through about anything and that I didn't have to deal with them waking up through all of this.

Third, I am thankful for a wonderful, patient, handy and detail oriented husband.

That said, where do I start?!?!

Maybe with this:

 

Due to incidents to be mentioned at the end of this post, we recently installed a child lock on the top of the fridge.  Last night I apparently forgot to lock it as I'm not used to it yet and actually harbor some resentment as to the fact that we even have to have a stupid lock on it to begin with.

The last couple of weeks have been really pretty good with Jaiden, he has been sleeping in his own bed and has really been good.  I don't know if the following was in retaliation to me making him come in from playing in the snow when it was nearly dark outside or what was the cause of his actions. 

I needed to feed Zach and put him down to sleep for the night.  The boys were being good playing and watching TV, so I said I'd be right back.  When I was about done, I heard what sounded like the boys running and slamming into the front door, which they do sometimes, but thought I'd better go check it out.  I hurried and finished with Zach and put him in his crib.  I walked quietly down the stairs and what to my freaking-out eyes did appear but two little boys dumping a gallon of milk onto the living room chair.  Okay, one dumping and one laughing.  My first reaction of disbelief was to laugh (not so they could hear).  That reaction wore off pretty quickly.  Yeah.

As I started to clean up, I realized that not only was the chair soaking as well as the floor all around it, but so was the couch and the floor around it.  And then I saw four empty cartons on the floor, two from milk, one from orange juice and one from pink lemonade.  They weren't all full to begin with but I think that there was about two gallons total of liquid. 

When I realized the scope of the problem, I had to call Carlos and have him come home from work to help me clean it up and get the kids in bed.  I had the shop-vac out when he got home then I went to the store to get a carpet cleaner while he put the boys to bed.  Wal-Mart didn't have them so I had to go to Allen's. 

Let me tell you how lovely oj and milk go together.  Maybe I'll just show you.

Yes, we had to tear (literally) the bottom fabric stuff off of the chair because after Carlos had cleaned it with the upholstery cleaner I noticed that the sides were soaking on the bottom.  This is what we found.

But hey, we got a free (?) pencil out of it.  It was hidden in the chair, left by those who made it.  Maybe it wasn't really free and was included in the cost of the chair when we bought it?

The deconstruction of the chair:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               Orange Cream Sofas.

 

Okay, so we finished cleaning the chair, the couch and the floor at a.m.

 

But wait!  As we were moving the couch, which we thought had fared better....

... we saw milk on the floor.  So we tipped the couch and pretty much repeated the process of the chair, although the couch wasn't as bad.

 

The milk was just pooled on top of this fabric.  Until we tipped it and sent it so the front of the couch....so more cleaning ensued.

 

So then it was a.m. and by the time I fed Zach it was 4:00 when we went to sleep.  But it is amazing that the kids all slept through the whole thing. 

We thought we'd cleaned the carpet pretty well and this morning it seemed like it was drying well and wasn't smelling but this afternoon it started to feel wet again and smell like sour milk.  Horribly.  So because Carlos is in the middle of finals and can't lose anymore time on it, we're calling a carpet cleaner tomorrow.  Hopefully it's salvageable. 

Seriously.

Other recent events which led to the placement of the lock on the fridge (all occurring in less than a week's time) are:

On a Tuesday:  Emptying all of the newly-refilled bottle of hand soap and the hand sanitizer all over the half-bath.

The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving when I really need to be packing in order to leave town early the next morning:  Getting into the fridge and throwing eggs all over the kitchen floor.

The next Tuesday morning:  Getting into the cupboard and emptying all of the baking soda onto the chair and floor.  Note:  Don't vacuum up baking soda.  It creates an electric charge that is not good.  Just ask Carlos as he's the one who cleaned it up for me.

All of these things have happened when I am trying to quickly take care of Zach's needs or prepare a quick meal.  I really try to not leave them alone for obvious reasons but it's impossible to have them follow me around the house every second of the day.

Austin is an accomplice in all of these events in that his laughter and delight just encourage Jaiden further.

The End.

p.s.  Aren't you so proud that I didn't swear in this entire post!

Zachary's 1st Real Food (not counting the tastes of ice cream and stuff Daddy gave him.)

I finally started Zach on solid foods.  I know that some doctors say you can start at 4 months like mine did but I wanted to wait a little longer.  Then I just didn't feel good and wasn't ready for the commitment and extra hassle.  Well last Monday we finally fed him his rice cereal and he just devoured it.  There was hardly any spitting out of the food at all.  It was great.  He has done really well and loves to eat!  As if you couldn't tell!

                           Here it comes!

 

                                Yummy!

                             Seriously, this is good stuff!

 

                                   My turn! 

 

                        That was hard work!

Thanksgiving

We had wanted to go out to Vernal on Wednesday night but Carlos had to work so we left at about 5:45 on Thursday morning.  Why so early when it's only 2 1/2 hours away?  Dad had to leave for work between 9:30 and 10:00 and we really wanted to see him, especially since he was going to miss Thanksgiving dinner and be gone the entire time we were there.  Every time we travel late at night or early morning I'm reminded why I like traveling at those times:  NO TRAFFIC!  We made really good time and I think met a total of four cars driving the same direction as us!  Anyway...

We had a fun time and a great meal.  We had to leave Saturday morning because Carlos had to work Saturday too.  He had been assigned mandatory overtime and they can't call in to not work the day before or after a holiday or they don't get paid for the holiday.

Here are some of the pics from the trip:

Vernal has a Holly Days Festival on Friday with tons of free activities throughout the community.  We went to a few and though we didn't do everything we planned (due to unhappy kids), I thought it was fun.  Unfortunately I thought my camera battery had died, so I didn't get anymore pics that night.  I need to get them from Mom and Amy (hint, hint).

Austin got a nasty bump on his head when he was pushed down and slammed his head into the edge of a door frame.  So sad!

 

 

 

 

              Before and After

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's about all folks!

A little diddy...

While preparing the relish tray for Thanksgiving, I began to reflect on Thanksgivings past and as I thought about what was missing from the tray, I came up with a little song.  Anyone who went to the Stewart's for Thanksgiving can identify with me.

Sung to the tune of "O Christmas Tree"

O Dilly Bean, O dilly bean.  Oh how we miss our dilly bean.

O Dilly Bean, O dilly bean, Oh how we miss your sour green.

You once were part of our great feast.

But now you're gone. No more. You've ceased.

O dilly bean, O dilly bean.   Oh how we loved our dilly beans.

Maybe I was just trying to entertain myself during the monotony of relish dish preparation!

More posts below

There are three posts below this one, one about each of the boys. This is my journaling and I'm trying to record the things they do so I won't forget.

Austincito

Austin is become more precocious by the day.  He was my angel baby as a baby and while still very sweet, he loves to get into things and do things he knows he's not supposed to.

Some of his latest antics include:

-Climbing up onto the piano and walking on the keys and then eating the little fake berries from the flowers I have and moving everything else. 

-Going into the bathroom and shutting the door thus leaving him in the dark.

-Pulling things out of cupboards and drawers.

-Wrestling Zach.

-Pulling the plugs out and putting them back in.  He's gotten into big trouble for this.  I'm just going to have to put something in the way of the one he likes to go to.

-Opening a door in our dresser and pulling everything out.

-Getting into the toilet paper.

-Waking up at unearthly hours and having a harder time taking naps and going to sleep at night.  There is just too much to see and do.

-Waking up screaming hysterically in the middle of the night because he wants milk and screaming hysterically if you don't take him downstairs with you to go get it.

-Tackling Jaiden, wrestling with Jaiden and otherwise egging him on, just asking for trouble.  He usually ends up getting hurt.  Hmm.

-Jaiden jumps off our bed.  Austin just walks straight off it.  He's going to break a leg if he does it when I'm not there to catch him.  I think he's going to be our child who breaks things as he's not afraid of anything.

The list goes on.  He still loves to eat but has a really hard time staying still to finish a meal.  He follows Jaiden everywhere and does a lot of what he does.  He's starting to say a lot more and repeats what you tell him to.  When asked how old he is, he holds up one finger and says "tres".   We count to three or tres a lot at our house. 

He also loves to give kisses and hugs and loves to read and sing.  He sings many songs and can follow along with a song really well, even if it's the first time he's heard  it.

Getting so big

Zach is now five and a half months old!  He is getting so big (literally!) and learning new things.  I think he probably weighs about 18 pounds now.   Here are some pictures from this month.

This is actually on the day he turned five months.  It shows how well he pulls himself up and stays sitting while in his swing.  He is practicing sitting in lots of different places.

 

Here he is after his first day of physical therapy.  He was exhausted.  The therapist worked on sitting and kneeling and a little bit of tummy time.  It was her first time, so I think it was more of an evaluation visit.

We've had this onesie since Jaiden was born and have a picture of each of the boys in it.  Jaiden and Austin are crying in their pictures, making the shirt funnier but Zach is just so pleasant most of the time and this was the first time I remembered to get a picture.   Here he is sitting so well in his highchair.

 

 

Yesterday I was upstairs for a few minutes with the other boys and left Zach downstairs as I was going to be right back.  He started to fuss for a minute and then was quiet.  He was sound asleep when I got downstairs again.

Fun with Jaiden

This is really long but I need to start writing down the things the kids say and do and I don't keep a journal (Gasp!) so this has got to be it.  It's actually got some really cute things Jaiden has said.

I usually sing some songs to-or with-Jaiden while he's in (currently our bed-don't ask) before he goes to sleep.  He loves Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Lump (from a  My Friends, Tigger and Pooh show).  We also frequently sing Heavenly Father, Are You Really There? and I am a Child of God. 

Tonight's request was Happy Birthday.  He loves to sing the song and give pretend presents (or pillows wrapped in blankets as presents) and pretend cakes.  So we sang Happy Birthday individually to Anna, Mariah, Daniela, Jaiden, Brent, ????, Connor, Spiderman, Superheros, Doggie and Brent (again), in that order.

The other night we tried to get him to sleep in his own bed.  He didn't want to and so I said he could sleep in his bed or on our floor.  He chose our floor.  Not long after I went downstairs, he was calling me.  He said that his back hurt.  I asked why and he said a bug "bite" me.  I looked and didn't see anything so then he said that it was in his ear.  I looked and said, nope, nothing there.  He then proceeded to show me a nostril and said the bug was there.  Upon declaring it bug free, he showed me the other nostril.  All clear.  He still ended up in our bed.  I've just been too exhausted physically and mentally to fight him.  I know I need to just buck up and do it but after a long day and getting all of the boys to bed by myself I just don't have it in me. 

Today he found a cake mix that I had out and was determined to make it.  I told him that after lunch we could make it.  Well, Zach started to demand a diaper change, feeding and nap, so I had to take care of that.  As I was feeding Zach I could hear it get awfully quiet.  I could only imagine what was going on.  Luckily Austin was napping so the damage would at least be limited to what Jaiden could do on his own.  Don't doubt his abilities though.  He is quiet capable of major catastrophes all by himself.  When I got downstairs again, this is what I found:

Okay, so he didn't have the eggs out yet, but he was mixing the cake mix.  He had even added the pudding that I had taken out of the cupboard to add to it.

 

 

 

 

Here he is carefully filling the mini-cupcake/muffin pan.  He really did his best to be very careful.

 

The filled pan.  He later filled every one to overflowing and we had to scrape some off.  I don't know why I didn't get a picture after they were baked...maybe because the camera batteries were dying, and I forgot.

Even though it was messy, it was so cute and he had a lot of fun making the "birthday cake."  He was already so dirty by the time I got there that I didn't bother putting his apron on.  Just one more thing to wash.

 

This was yesterday when I went to make lunch.  No, I can't leave him alone ever.  Oh well.

He was making this face on purpose.  Maybe he's trying to look tough?

And yes, he is still in his pj's even though it's lunch time. 

 

Also, last month was our Primary program and after the first song the kids sang, Jaiden stood up, clapping, and said "Bravo!"  Later that day we went visiting teaching and the sister we visit said that was her favorite part.    I agree.

Who knows what they will be able to do in the future....

For those who don't know, Zachary was born with Spina Bifida.  He has an occupational therapist and a physical therapist coming twice a month each.  So far we haven't needed to use a catheter but it is always a possibility in the future.

Here is a cool article 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27648355/

This is in the beginning stages but imagine how much can be done in the future.  Maybe someday they will even be able to reroute nerves or something so that legs will work like normal.  Who knows.

Have a seat!

 

While upstairs attending to Zachary's needs the other day, I heard noises in the kitchen indicating some form of mischief.  Upon my descent, this is what I discovered:

Pumpkin Carving

Carlos carved his pumpkin the other night.  The boys were kind-of interested, but not as much as I thought they would be.  I personally have no desire to carve a pumpkin.  I wanted to paint mine and have the boys paint theirs.  I don't know if I'll get around to it though. 

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Spina Bifida Halloween Party

Saturday night was the Halloween party for the Intermountain Spina Bifida Foundation.  It was at Primary Children's.  I decided to go but Carlos had to work and I didn't want to go by myself.  Mom and Dad were going to be out working in Grandma Wilkey's yard so Mom was able to go with me that night.  I think the boys had fun and there were a lot of cute activities for the kids even though we didn't get to do everything. 

Afterwards we went to Amber's and they saw us in costume.  They were carving some cool pumpkins.  A very dirty Dad met Mom there and we all went our separate ways.

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being not impressed and 10 being very impressed, they kid's reactions are as follows:

I would say Jaiden's reaction was a 9, things were pretty cool.  He even got a pirate painted on his face!

Austin was about a 2.  Not really impressed.  Except for when he dumped his popcorn out onto the carpeted floor (and then tried to eat it off the floor), he was just like, whatever.

Zach was probably a 5.  He didn't really care either way and was his usual pleasant self.

I was maybe a 7.  I wish they would have had some activities more often so that Jaiden could have participated in all of them.  I was disappointed that I really didn't get to meet the other parents like I was hoping to.  But it was still fun.