My, how the kids have grown

We have hit a major milestone: Tessa is (basically) potty-trained!! She is still wetting at night and occasionally forgets during the day (praise be to Pull-Ups!), but we're pretty much there.

Right now we have a chart she gets to put a sticker on at night if she stays "clean and dry" all day, and when she gets a sticker in each box then she gets to go to the "Monkey Rides" (officially called Jungle Jim's Playland).

Every time she goes potty she gets a candy (which of course means Davin and Caden must also have one), and if she goes poopy then she gets a present, which is something from the dollar store I have stashed in my closet. I think we're on the last round of poopy presents and once these are gone then she'll have to just go for the sake of going. I figured it costs about $80-$100 to potty train a child, between Pull-Ups, potty seats and prizes, which is about 2-3 months of diapers, so it really is a financial benefit in the end :)

It's tough to catch Davin's cuteness on camera because he always beelines for it as soon as you pull it out, but he was trapped here and in a good mood after that cupcake, so we caught his little bumpin' dance move, and his head-shaking, plus his reaction to a very out-of-tune kids' song (who was that singing, anyway?).

Along came Roman

I had the pleasure of being with Amber and Dave as they welcomed their first boy into the world! It was a truly wonderful experience and I am thankful they let me share in it! It brought back quite a few memories this time for me as well and made me think again that I don't really even want to TRY an unmedicated delivery ever again! :) I love my little nephew and can't wait to watch him grow.

Which Austen Heroine are you?

I am following the crowd, so un-Elizabethish of me! This was kinda fun though. I just bought a second-hand copy of this book to read again, so now I'm excited to do so, knowing I AM Elizabeth! :)

Take the Quiz here!

Be my Valentine

I had left little Valentine cards and treats at the breakfast table for the kids to find when they got up. Dave said Caden woke up at 5:45 and found his stuff right away. When I came into the living room he said, "Mom! I got your card! It said 'Be my Valentine.' And the answer is Yes. I will." So sweet! I have the best Valentine ever :)

We went rollerskating for the first time with a homeschool group. It was quite an adventure!

Caden had absolutely no control over where his feet were going with his skates on. Tessa was actually a little more solid than him. I quickly realized (like, as I was trying to put the kids' skates on after I had mine on) that 2 first-time skaters and a baby would make it impossible for me to wear skates and hope to stay up for any period of time. So I just walked an offered support, trying to ignore the incredible back pain that came from continually holding them up as they tried to go all directions. Happily, Dave joined us after a while and was able to take each kid separately and skate around with them. They LOVED that! We also did a "Valentine Walk" card exchange with all the kids, and it was excellent. I thought the idea was fantastic: Each kid brought 30 Valentines and an empty box/bag. We put all the bags in a circle, then walked around the outside and dropped our Valentines into the other bags until they were gone. So we ended up getting 30 Valentines and it was so orderly and easy! If anyone wants to do an exchange with a large group of people, that's the way to do it! See, you learn so much when you homeschool :)

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and feel the love!

A few other pictures and a video from the last little while

Davin's first birthday

I'm finally posting some pics from Davin's birthday. Our computer has been behaving badly and wouldn't upload my pictures, but I finally caught a glitch and got it to work :) They are a little out of order - sorry.

In case you can't tell, the cake is supposed to look like giant Lego pieces. I thought that would be cute but simple ... but still took 2 hours to decorate :) The Lego nubs are large marshmallows cut in half and frosted.

Anyway, we had the local family over for dinner on Jan 20th (day before his birthday - it was easiest since it was a Sunday). Davin at first was not thrilled with touching the messy cake, but once we gave him a spoon he dug right in and enjoyed himself. That is, until he rubbed his eye with a frosted hand. Then Uncle Sean decided it would be a good idea to give him some war paint. Please note the blue mohawk :) By that time he was tired and grouchy, of course (I think that's a rule for first birthday parties) so we gave him a bath, let him open Grandma and Grandpa's gift (new jammies -yay!) and put him right to bed, where he gladly went.

Caden decided it would be "great to decorate with the alphabet!" when he saw me draping streamers that looked like U's. So we had U's, an X, a Y, a Z and a T. He was thrilled.

A fate worse than death

There were times this week that I wondered if I wouldn't welcome a little death in lieu of dealing with 5 sick family members! What a week it's been.

On Sunday Dave went home from church early because he wasn't feeling well. He stayed home from work Monday, and I knew he must really be sick because he was supposed to go to a training and then spend the afternoon snowmobiling, and he was really looking forward to that! He went to the doctor and found he had walking pneumonia. That night, the nagging cough and sore throat I'd had for weeks flared up and I spent a wakeful night in bouts of coughing. Since Dave was home I got to go to the doctor BY MYSELF (!!) on Tuesday. They said I had bronchitis, fluid in my ears boarding infection, and other cold symptoms. She said to go home and get in my pjs and tell my husband I was more sick than he was (I didn't think he'd appreciate that, though, so I didn't and still haven't). When I got home, Davin was lying on Dave's chest completely lethargic and feverish, and Caden was huddled on the couch, also very listless. Tessa was still bouncing around as usual. Come Wednesday, she was also knocked out on the couch.

And there we were, all 5 of us in our pajamas, parked around the living room huddling under blankets, coughing and blowing and moaning, napping frequently, munching on an occasional cracker, surrounded by wads of used Kleenex but unable to get up to dispose of them. Dave and I had to rock-paper-scissors it to decide who'd change the next diaper or fill the juice request, neither of us really physically able to do it (I'd have to take short breathers while standing at the change table) but having to do it nonetheless. On Wednesday my flu-like symptoms hit of alternating fever and chills, as well as all-over body aching and weakness, and it was just plain misery. Dave also developed a stye, which he did not appreciate. All the while it continued to snow, snow, snow outside.

Blessed mother-in-law made us dinner, as did my wonderful friend Lori, and her husband shoveled our walkway for us. We lived this way until yesterday, when we finally began to snap out of it and feel human again. A good back-to-earth moment came when we got to dig Dave's car out of our driveway, where it had become firmly lodged in about 3 feet of snow, so he could go to work. We continue to improve and are grateful for health! We would volunteer to never go through that again. At least one parent must remain in good health at all times! It's our newest family rule.

I wish I had taken pictures, because I could have posted some really pathetic ones, but the camera was in the kitchen ... and pushing that button sounded so draining ... so it didn't happen. I have other pictures I am needing to post, but for now, I must rest.

PS - Here is one picture I took later in the week - Caden konked out on Tessa's shoulder. How sweet.