Thursday Thirteen -- Tru Fax Bout Bein a Parent

Thirteen Tru Fax bout bein a Parent #1 You can understand the title of this Thursday thirteen. #2 Your glass/cup/bottle will never be empty. #3 You will never get to finish a meal by yourself. (unless you wait until everyone is a sleep to eat your dinner) #4 Saying things like "Do not bite the cat's tail" will become a daily norm. #5 Remember those days of cramming all night long for tests or papers? Remember how you were able to crash when the test/class was over? Yeah -- you'll still have the lack of sleep --- only the chances of getting a nap are SLIM TO NONE. #6 You will find out that Laundry REPRODUCES in the hamper. Really it does. Apparently laundry is like rabbits in that regard. Go figure. #7 A shower -- A shower what is that? You will never again be able to take a REAL shower, at least not for a few years. AT get used to sharing. (No I don't mean like that) #8 Housework becomes a real chore. Because while you are cleaning one room, the kid(s) are messing up another. #9 You know what else reproduces while you are not looking -- DISHES. They are evil little things. #10 You will spend months trying to teach them to talk, and the rest of their lives wishing they never did. #11 WHY? WHY? WHY? Get used to it. You'll hear it a billion and one times a month. #12 Always have the camera ready and charged. You never know when a perfect photo op will arrive. (IE the perfect teenage blackmail fodder) #13 Kids are too smart for their own good. Spelling out words only works for a time or two, then they still know what you are saying. Trying to skip over pages in a book at bedtime -- HAHA no, they know every page, front to back and they know when you skip one.

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Updates before I leave.....

I'm headed to my mom's for the next 3 nights, so I'm not sure how much blogging I'll accomplish.

But I wanted to leave with updates posted.

So here goes:

Caity: Her VCUG and kidney u/s is scheduled for Aug. 14th @2:30. We should have results by friday.

Izzie: She's currently stable. Her anemia is better. We'll go in September to do a recheck on her lead levels. She's also putting on a little weight.

Late to the party, as always

But here is my MomDot intro.

1) who are you?

I am Kris. a 26 year old wife and mom.

2) how many kids? pictures?

I have two daughters. They are in my banner and splattered throughout my blog! But I have more, you can bet.

3) what do you blog about? why do you blog?

Mostly I blog about my daily life. Be it as a wife, a mom, a daughter, just me!

I blog to get it out. If I need to vent, its there. If I want to share joy, its there.

4) Something terribly interesting about you everyone should know

I aspire to be a writer some day.

Check it........

I've been hanging out with the mama's at Momdot off and on since they launched their site Monday.

Momdot is a growing networking site, a place for moms to list their blogs and get to know other mommy bloggers. But not only that. You get to learn about all the cool things from their sponsors, join in on contests and read more Daily doses of mommy life, thorough the eyes of another mother!

The point of this post, beside blatant advertising for this awesome site, and the wonderful ladies represented is this:


StrollerMama One of the awesome sponsors for Momdot is donating this seriously wicked awesome prize.

A brand new 2008 BumbleRide Flyer Stroller

And you get 5 entries to win if you just CLICK HERE

So get clicking. Join Momdot and see what the fuss is all about. And Try to win this awesome stroller

Why, yes, I am a little oddball

When I am cleaning, I HAVE to have music on. Yes. Music. Loud. Random Music.

So of course, an MP3 player is a must (unless I want to irritate the hubby and kidlets)


So for your chance to win an ipod (who doesn't want one of those) Visit SITS

Wordless Wednesday --- Visiting with an Uncle

Izzie Izzie Izzie

I do not think Crayola was on the list of approved ways to increase your daily calories.


And no, I don't care how "pretty" your diapers will be.



Note to Caity: Don't leave your crayons where sister can get them. She will eat them and you will have none

K thanx

My Dryer is Empty

Why is this something to blog about, you ask?

Because if you know me, you know that I am forever saying that if my dryer is empty, it must be broken. Yes, this is because I am forever doing laundry.

So this weekend, of course, the weekend, I am childless for a few hours, what happens to thwart my cleaning plans -- the dryer stops drying.


The mountain of dirty laundry will continue to grow until Paps, hopefully is able to fix the dryer later this week.

A launch party for a new blog! Check em out!

“Hey BlogoSphere! MomDot is so excited about our launch! We had been working hard to get going for August 1st, but with all the amazing support of mom boutiques and mom bloggers , we are ready to get the Party Started! We want you to come every day starting on July 28th with the party ending on August 31st, including prizes daily and feature bloggers , just in time to bang out the end of summer and into the school year. Don’t forget to list your blog for free and connect with other mommies on our forum!”

Neat thing

and I found it in a contest, of course.

Check out Sassy Frazz and their giveaway for a grobag! Awesome idea.

A trip to Children's is in our future

On August 14th, we will be heading to Little Rock for a visit to Children's hospital.


Why: Caity will be having a VCUG performed.


Oh Joy!

Will keep all updated on how that goes.

With all the recalls and other info

coming in these days. It's hard to know what's best for our children.


We, ourselves, have been making the switch to BPA free sippies and bottles. But the task becomes then to find one the girls will drink out of.


Here's a chance to win one to try.

Click here for a chance to win A Safe Sippy

Works for me Wednesday --- Shelving

In our house, where we have both girls currently sharing a room (Hey honey, can you get that addition up any faster?!) We have a lack of space in the bedroom. But no lack of toys, clothes, and all the other miscellaneous items needed in their room.

So we took a unused bookshelf, hung it on the wall (its safely hung and not moving at all!) and We use it to store cloth diapers, hats, bibs, burp clothes and any other random item that does not go with the toys or clothes in the dressers.



The items are out of the reach of the littles AND not stuffed somewhere looking ridiculous. That Works for me


Here's an old picture of the shelf

Another Cloth Diaper Contest

Yes, Another one.

Why?!

Because. I. Like. Cloth. And because it gets me an entry!


Win 12 Bum Genius Diapers Here

Yo Baby Yogurt

So, as most of you know, we've been told to increase Izzie's calories to try to get her back on her growth curve and put some weight on her.

One thing that a friend recommended to me was Yo baby yogurt plus cereal and Fruit. I was a little leary to try it as none of us really like yogurt. But I picked up some Apple and Mixed berry and Izzie LOVES it.

This stuff is awesome. She loves the flavor and taste. And I love the fact taht it has 45% RDI of Iron! And is a good healthy high calorie snack for her!

So go out and get some for your babies.

Happy Birthday Baby Luxe!

Baby Luxe Daily is turning one!

http://babyluxedaily.com/

Go check out their blog!

No recent posts

because Caity spilled coke in my laptop and it is not currently living.

Jay is trying to save the harddrive so we at least still have our pics.

Fingers crossed please!

And for the girls:

Caity is doing well. She spent part of the week at her great grandma's playing with Evan. And Izzie is a new tooth richer! Both are well!

Today's To do

We had a busy day today. We had to do grocery shopping and hit walmart for a few items too (Why can't we get a target!?)

Jay ended up having to go into work after some fiasco there. I am not sure what exactly happened, but something with the server and the project couldn't run, and he was upset and gone for 5 hours -- so not good.

I went to G's house to go with her to walmart. Plus I did some of my laundry at her house, since I still have no water in the laundry room (Thanks to Xerox for calling Jay in today) While there, Jay calls and tells me to run by and pick up an RX for Caity. Apparantly Dr. M called while I was gone and she has a UTI. Lovely.

Just lovely.


We've started Izzie on some Carnation instant breakfast to increase her calories and try to get her to gain some weight. SO far, its going okay. She seemed to like it a bit.

Fourth of July Pics

I finally got them uploaded!

Finally got around to uploading pictures from the fourth!


First off is The Goose! This goose has been staying on my grandmother's pond. But he's a friendly goose and came right up by the house (even with the fireworks) and ran around. The boys got to feed him some bread crumbs and such. Izzie enjoyed chasing after him!








Here are the girls Swimming and playing on the slip and slide









Big Girl Emmy K!



Some random shots of the girls:










I dd also get some pics of the boys -- I'll post those tomorrow, have to upload them too.

Today

Today we have a checkup appointment for both Caity and Izzie.

Izzie will have some bloodwork done and Caity is having her 4 year WCC or just a general checkup in reality.

I'll let everyone know how it goes later

Life in Holland -- For Jen

*I am writing this for you Jen. For you because I know you are hurting right now. And I am posting it here. Because I know there are other mothers out there. Mothers who have also found themselves in Holland and maybe they feel all alone too. *

I know that you are staying offline right now. And I understand. I truly do. I'm going to write this post, and I'm using the imagery from 'Welcome to Holland' that you shared with me.

I’ve been there. Where you are. Where you’ve just stepped off the plane and found yourself in Holland. A whole other country than where you should be. Sure its not the same thing, our children do not have the same problems. I’m in a different part of the country than you. But.

It’s still Holland.

And so. I will share with you my journey. My journey through the landscape of Holland as I have seen it thus far.


There were moments when I was sad, sadder than some people thought I should be. Me, with my living, breathing, child.

And there were times I was scared. More scared than most first time mothers are the day they arrive home for the first time with their new babies.

Plus quite a lot of periods of time when I was angry, Oh I was so angry. More angry that a lot of people thought I should be. Me, angry at the world and everything in it.

And then. Something happened.

Soon I was excited. As excited as any mother is when their child starts talking. .

And I was amazed. As amazed as any mother is when their child starts walking.

And now. Now I am enjoying all that life brings me and my child. All the little things. All the non exciting things to other mothers. Because I know. I’m not watching just any child. I’m not watching some genius child prodigy. I’m not watching someone of no importance. I’m watching my child. And I’m seeing her do things. All kinds of things. And she’s doing them on her own. In her own way. In her own time.

And I realized something. I realized that as Mothers, our primary goal is to see our children succeed. Succeed at whatever it is their hearts desire. Some of our children want to be doctors. Some want to be writers. Some want to stay at home and play video games all day long (Hey, it’s the truth). As mothers, we do what we can to help our children, and we hope they take from us all it is to be a kind, decent human being in whatever they choose to do as adults. Some of our children need more from us than others. And some of our children don’t quite know how to take those two steps away from us. They need guidance. They need love. They need acceptance. Acceptance to do things on their own. In their own way. In their own time.

And it is in that simple truth. That I find, Holland, isn’t all that different from Italy.

So you go a head and be. Be sad. Be scared. Be Angry at the world and everyone in it. Be whatever else you want to be. When you return, we'll walk this path together. And then we will show everyone just how beautiful Holland can be.

Out of the mouth's of Babes

I forgot to say this earlier!

HA !

And its a good one.

Caity was blowing a whistle the other night when we were loading up and leaving Sutherland's (the second time!) and both Jay and I asked her to stop. She didn't stop right away.

Jay teasingly told her "If you don't stop, We'll leave you here."

To which she responded "That's okay daddy, I'll just wait until you come back!"

And we did come back a third time that night!

Check this out........

Ambajam maker of cute clothes is hosting a Photo contest for cutest babies! The baby who wins gets a $75 prize pack from Ambajam!

And to up the ante, Skimbaco is hosting its own contest wroth $150 of goodies!



If you want to enter your cute babies, click here and go pic crazy!

Here's recent pics of my cutie pies too!

What A Fun Week

*note dripping sarcasm*

So, Izzie's latest medical problem stems from high lead levels, as most of our friends and family know.

Jay, how I love him, is very dedicated to figuring out where this is coming from and fixing it, so that we can get the lead out of her system for good.

His latest attempt at this was adding a whole house water filter and changing all of our water pipes in the house to new CPVC instead of the metal they were.

He started replacing pipes Monday afternoon. Tuesday, he continued, and shut off the water, so we could hook everything up. After 3 trips to Sutherlands (kinda like Home Depot/Lowes for those that don't have them) that night, he still did not have all pieces needed, and so we went without water.

Yesterday, he went to Lowe's on his lunch break to pick up peices. And when we got home from work, he continued on, while I helped AND kept an eye on the girls -- who have thoroughly enjoyed being outside!

Needless to say, nothing ever goes right! And while we did have water last night to bathe, etc, there were other problems and we will be yet again, working on them today after work.

Nothing like bursting water pipes to make your evening fun!

Another Contest

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature's Child - Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies


Most of you know that we use cloth diapers (along with sposies) on Izzie. She has super sensitive skin and these help out tons.

So here's a contest to win a starter kit for those who are interested. And if you're not, you can enter and send them to me! (Joking....mostly!)

A contest! A contest!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)


Join this awesome contest! Baby wearing has been such a blessing with Izzie!

Happy Fourth of July

We spent the day at my grandmothers with the girls and other family! Aunts and Uncles, and the grandparents and great grandparents! Plus Baby Emmy!

Good Food, Great Family, And Wonderful Fireworks!

Hope everyone else had a great time too!