::the variousness of february::

Here are some random bits of Feb for you.

First, this is how I often feel in life.  There's always somebody using my face as a prop.  Always.  Often in bed when I'm trying to rest or nap.

Ugh, that's an ugly picture too.



Let's make up for the last one with this one.  Here I am wearing my favorite sparkly lip gloss.  I think it's so fun because it has blue sparkles in it.  I took a picture of myself to send to Kris to make him miss me.



One amazing sunset.  Sometimes they are just so stunning, and of course we're in a perfect position to appreciate them at our house.

Orange sherbet anyone?


Kids at work both sitting in Judy's lap.  Judy doesn't like pictures so she's hiding.  Sandy looks so old in this photo.



Another car shot, this time the car is chock full of (crazy) kids because we're bringing two of Max's best friends home for the night--Max and Griffin Barth.  They live in New Orleans now, but were in Santa Fe for Feb and Max got to see them a lot.  Too bad Sandy started puking not too long after we got home and the sleep over was cancelled.  But they had lots of fun up until that point.



This is Lucy's face when she wants you to know you've hurt her feelings.  She's sad about something. Maybe you took the phone away?  Maybe you rolled over when she didn't want you to?  Maybe she pinched a tender area with her little sharp fingernails and you removed her from that spot?  Who knows, but whatever it was, she's offended.



Seriously hurt.



One more car shot, this time in wintery weather.  Little ones in the back holding hands.  Well, it's mostly Sandy holding on to Lucy's hand but it still works for me.  So dang cute.



And there's your various taste of Feb.

::sandy has a cavity!!!!::

This actually all went down on Max's birthday. Sandy had a CAVITY!!!!! (oh noooooooo!!!)  Kris wanted it fixed right away.


So we popped in to get some work done and to fix the little hole.  Of course Sandy got the VIP treatment--tons of attention, movies, prizes, popsicles.  He didn't even need to get numb.

He's a good patient.



It's always funny to sit in the patient or parent seat at the office.  It gives you a different perspective on it all.  Luckily I was pleased with how it all went down.  And so was Lucy.



And now no more cavities, at least for now, the little stinker.

::surfs up::

I'm not sure exactly why this happened, but we were heading out from the bedroom to the kitchen first thing in the morning, presumably to get breakfast started.

For some reason Kris was drawn to his surfboard covered pool table with the baby and this happened:





She wasn't so sure about it.  And really she can't stand by herself much yet anyway, so she wasn't sure what Kris really wanted her to do.



The above is Max's favorite pose.



And of course the above is the one I posted online after cropping Kris out.  Everybody was very impressed with Lucy's standing/surfing skills.



And down she goes.  She's just too dang cute.

::sickies::

One night in the middle of the night by little one woke up sick.  Coughing and hacking the night away.  She kept on coughing for the next couple of days, so close to the end of the week I took her to the doctor to see if there was anything we could do, just in case things got worse over the weekend.



Here we are in the waiting room.
Of course there was nothing they could do, and she didn't have a fever or really even seem sick, so we were sent on our way with fingers crossed that the weekend would go fine.  She wasn't sleeping at night because she couldn't breathe, but that's nothing new.  And of course she's teething so that didn't help at all.

I was especially hoping the weekend would go well because Kris was going to Colorado with the Santa Fe Dental Society for their annual trip.  And seems like everything always goes wrong when Dad is gone overnight.  And since I hate this particular event I figured things would definitely go funky.



And they did!  I had Max's friends come over for a sleepover.  They were out playing in the house, I was in my bedroom.  Sandy came in telling me that his tummy hurt.  He actually says that a lot in life, and usually just has to be reminded to go to the bathroom.  I tried that this time, but before he could make it to the bathroom he had ralfed up all over my bedroom carpet.  And my bathroom floor. And my feet and socks and jeans.  And himself.



So I quickly quarantined Sandy, called Max's friends' mom and settled in for a long night.  And it was.  Sandy threw up a zillion times, trying so hard to get to the toilet like I asked him to.  Sometimes he made it, sometimes the carpet got hit.  It was a valiant effort on his part.

And Lucy.  She would NOT sleep.  At all.  I got Sandy to sleep, and then I put Lucy to bed.  I was hoping to eat my dinner and as soon as I got it warmed up Lucy was up crying.  Then Sandy had to puke.  I had to put Lucy on the floor so I could help Sandy and she was SCREAMING.  It was rather tortuous.  The whole night was tortuous.  Kids took turns waking up whenever they could.  I was exhausted in the morning.



She slept, as long as she was totally pushing me off the bed and snorting in my face.



Anyway, Sandy was doing mych better the next day, thank goodness and Lucy was refreshed after using all my sleep for herself.  This was Friday night.  We survived Saturday and Sat night was a little better.  Then Kris got home Sunday.

Friday night was totally one of those testing nights as a parent.  I don't know if I got an A, but I at least passed.  Everybody survived.  Phew.

::::

Today was just a regular day--too busy, kind of weird, good and bad.  All that stuff.  Lucy hasn't been feeling well.  She had an awful cough all weekend and it lingers on today.  So her sleep has been tough.  She fell asleep in my lap while I was trying to work on the payroll.  Notice her hand down my shirt in the top photo.  Always.



She just doesn't fall asleep on me that much.  It was so cute and pitiful and I had to send a photo to Kris.  Poor little one.

Kris had a lot of hospital cancellations so his day was kind of short.  Victoria came to help with the kids in the afternoon so Kris and I stole away to have a late lunch together.  This almost caused me to forget about picking up Max, but luckily Kris remembered him, so he wasn't abandoned.



Lucy got to come along of course, lucky girl.  All the people in Santa Fe think she's our only kid when we're out together with just her and are always shocked if it comes up that we have a 10 yr old. Does that mean we look young or that everyone thinks people should start having kids when theyr'e old?  I'm not sure.





And there's Lucy at the restraunt laying claim to her favorite spot.  Give me a break.



Oh, and this is from the morning when I had to take Sandy to the doctor for his 4 yr old well child check and innoculations.  Kris had helped him get dressed and he was in head to toe green (including socks I think) and was wearing a Peter Pan hat.  Many a Grandma in the doctor's waiting room got a kick out of him.

He did great for the shots, I tried a new system of honestly and bribery, telling him very clearly that he was getting shots and explaining them, but also telling him we'd drive straight to Target so he could pick out a Lego set. It totally worked.  He was very brave and picked out a cool Star Wars ship that wasn't even too expensive.

See?  It was a weird day.  It turned out nice though.  I even got a massage at the end.  Mondays don't get much better than that, really.

::today stuff::

Today everybody was home sick from church.  Sandy had a puking episode Friday night (6 or 7 times, yikes) and Lucy has had a yucky cough that's made it hard for her to sleep for several days.  Max was supposed to go to church but he claimed a sore throat just before it was time to leave, and considering the circumstances I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

So anyway, a few things from today:

Lucy uses my ipad.  The way she uses an ipad is by hitting herself in the face with it.  I have no idea what she's trying to do.  It's super funny.





She definitely knows she's being cute.  And she is.



Somehow Lucy is getting her top teeth before her bottom ones, and that is probably contributing to her cold and lack of sleep.  She's been pretty miserable.  Happy most of the time, but when she's sad she's very very sad.




Max got inspired while watching an old family video of himself learning to read.  He pulled out the reader my Mom made for him and started working with Sandy on it.   It was pretty cute.  It reminded me that I need to get to work on Sandy.  I was so anxious to get Max reading and all that sort of thing.  I'm much more patient now to let things happen more naturally.


Lucy started boycotting puffs today.  Now that the teeth are coming she's too good for the baby food. She wants cheese, cheerios, almost anything besides the poor puffs.  They stay on the tray.



So that's the interesting stuff from today.  There were a few failed naps, lots of laundry and cleaning up the house, lots of messing up the house and some food and hugs and scriptures.  It was a good Sunday.

::peter or robin??::

This guy likes to wear his halloween costume from last year once in a while.  When he does this he's Peter Pan, and don't call him Sandy.

The below Peter looks a little sad and wimpy.  I was confused by this when I took the photo, but now I get it because later that day he threw up like six times.

Poor Peter.


Anyway, when Grandpa Guy was here he was convinced that Sandy was Robin Hood.  And he kept calling the man Robin Hood and it was driving Peter crazy.  But it did inspire us to watch Robin Hood which we really enjoyed.

I don't know why this merited a blog post, but it did.  Probably just because Sandy is such a funny guy.  He's adorable and so quirky.



(Sandy as Peter Pan being "flown" by Max's good friend who is also named Max.  This was also pre-puke and may have contributed to the puking, who knows.)

::catch::

One morning as we were scrambling to get ready (well, we is a stretch, I was scrambling and the kids were moving in slow motion) I had Max watch Lucy for a minute so I could run and grab my shoes or something else like that.  When I came back into the main part of the house I found all three of the kiddos in Max's room.



They were playing catch with the baby.  It was so cute and gentle.  Max would hand the ball to her and then she would suck on it for a minute and hand it to Sandy who would then pass it to Max.



Sandy got a little ancy because of Lucy's pace, but really he was so patient.  I almost died of the cuteness.  I was so impressed.  It was adorable and I hated to break it up to leave for school.



Later that day they tried to play again, but life was just too distracting and it didn't quite work.



Even later, yesterday, Max was at school and Sandy and Lucy were playing alone.  I was doing the dishes or something else equally fun and when I looked over there was Sandy, sweetly and patiently playing catch with Lucy.



It was so cute.  And I thought about how influential an older sibling can be in a family.  Max taught them to do this and then there they are doing it when he's not even there.



And really, although these two can get annoyed with each other pretty easily, they really love each other and there are some adorable hugs and kisses that go on from time to time.  Lucy can be very affectionate.



Oh Sandy's face!





It's so fun for Lucy to feel like a big person playing with the big guys!



And yeah, I have to acknowledge the morning light in this room.  Glorious.



There you go, my brag on my kids.  Allow me it, there's plenty of other days and times when bragging would NOT be appropriate.  Such is life.

::fishies::

Remember my cute little adorable fish loving boy from many many years ago?

Well, he still loves fish.  And that makes me so very happy.

At school the kids were put in two person teams and had to do a poster presentation with research and illustration about a certain type of animal.  I'm assuming they got to pick the animal, since Max picked FISH!



Max tells me he did most of the illustrations.  Like 99%, though he did teach his partner to do fish shapes so that he could help with the fishy border.

I love this poster more than words can say.  It's adorable and hilarious and super fabulous.



Jelly + fish + jellyfish.  DO NOT TOUCH!!!



It don't even know what to say about the rest of this.  Yes, I think he's brilliant because he's my kid.  I can't help it.  But seriously these drawings are incredible.



This octopus cracks me up.  The dismay and embarrasment of having no brain.  Max's character's faces are so expressive.



I'm going to get my hands on this poster and keep it forever and ever.