It makes up for all the crap

I was in the basement this afternoon, organzing my food storage on my fabulous new shelving units in the basement, courtesy of my father-in-law. Dani comes down the stairs with 2 little fistfuls of Cheez-its....

Dani: I brought you a snack, Mom.
Me: Oh, thank you, Dani! Why don't you put them on that shelf right there.
Dani: I just thought you might be feeling hungry.
Me: Well that was very nice.
Dani: Know why I just brought you this snack, Mom?
Me: Uh... no... why?
Dani: To show my love!


Heaven help me, Dani-girl, I love you too.

Milly Lives

When my sister, Rach and I were little, sometimes our brother, Ryan would disappear, and in his place would appear a sweet little girl named Milly, who would become our NEW sister. Milly especially liked a particular Ronald McDonald dress with a red bow in his, I mean her, hair. When this happened today, I was taken back to many dress up sessions and dance parties I enjoyed with my two "sisters," and as you will see... could NOT stop laughing about it.


I might add, Evan has recently become amazed by the many wonderful things his body can do. Spinning is his new favorite activity. My favorite of his moves is "shakin' down" which was actually a move created by Dani, which is equally cute when does it, but I have to admit, I giggle a little harder when Evan does it.

How Brendan explores his world

He does this to everything he can get his hands on

Is there a doctor in the house?

On Sunday, Dani came downstairs with her toy stethescope and doctor kit and told Jason, "I'm Dr. and Coventants," and proceeded to give him a check up.

When it rains it pours

Dani was sick last Friday and Saturday. Threw up in the middle of the night....2 different nights. Spent all day napping... that's how we knew she was sick. The barfing is not a huge deal, she does that from time to time. But when DANI, the human tornado, sleeps for THREE or MORE hours in an afternoon -- on TWO afternoons, you know that kid is sick. Then Brendan errupted in a rash... kept getting worse. We took him to the doctor on Monday and he said, oh the rash isn't a big deal, it was probably brought on by the virus he has, which is progressed into double ear infections, a sinus infection and bronchiolitis, so now Bren is on antibiotics and getting nebulizer treatsments 3 times a day. Yesterday (Wednesday), Brendan barfed on me. Now, I'm not talking about spit up -- he emptied the contents of his stomach all over me. Followed by diaherrea. And by the afternoon both Brendan AND Evan were running fevers. Last night, Jason started feeling ill.... now its just me and Emily... the last hold outs. Wonder how long it will be before we get hit too.........

Fashion Forward

Evan has developed an appreciation for hats. He always seems to find them right before bed and wears one to sleep in. He also has a great fondness for one I bought him when he was a year old that is too small and sits way back on his head It almost looks like a beanie. On Friday, I took him with me to Wal-mart and he found the hat of his dreams -- a BATMAN hat. Figuring that $4 was a small price to pay for such great bliss, I bought it for himi, and he's been wearing it ever since. Today, I think he started missing his old hats, becuase he's been wearing all three around the house. Perhaps one day he'll make millions designing cutting edge clothing that no one will appreciate until years after he's dreamed them up. And then I'll say, "He's been into looking weird ever since he was little boy....."

This is a happy 5 year old

The day that Dani has been anticipating for THREE MONTHS finally arrived. Her fifth birthday, and it was, I believe every bit as wonderful as she thought it would be. She drove me CRAZY about presents from the time she woke up until after dinner when she finally got to open them, except for the Power Rangers Mystic Force tshirt that Grandma and Grandpa Knapp sent her. That, I let her open this morning becuase I knew she'd like to show it off to her friends (and aparently, everyone at preschool LOVED her very special Power Ranger Mystic Force tshirt). She got to take cupcakes to school and we went to the Dupage Children's Musuem and to McDonalds for dinner and then she was gifted a Lego Firehouse, a Lego police car, Floam and a Pixter. I believe she is sleeping with the Pixter. At last, the incessant asking of how many days until her birthday is OVER. I think, though, we are in for it with Evan. He is quite envious of the "boyday" presents and keeps saying "MY boyday" and we say, "No, DANI'S boyday" and smiles and says, "its coming!" It is going to be a very long 6 weeks!

What Dani is like 5 years old

She calls me "Mudder"

She seems to be accepting the fact that she is a girl. She has many times insisted that she is going to be a boy when she grows up. At the children's museum today, though, she asked if she could play with a particular little boy and he said yes, to which Dani replied, "I'm a girl... do you hate girls or like them?" Luckily, the little boy liked girls, otherwise, we might have gone back to wanting to be a boy.

If she isn't trying really hard, she knows most of her numbers and letters. Its when she really tries to focus that she can't figure out what she's doing.

She has figured out how to play computer games and would be very happy playing them ALL DAY LONG. She especially likes to play Jetix games (which includes Power Rangers), but I only let her play those games on the weekends, so ALL WEEK LONG, she asks me over and over again if she can play Jetix and how many days until she's allowed to play it again.

She has started being scared of things -- movies in particular. If a scary part starts in a movie, she runs out of the room or jumps into my or dad's lap. This morning she woke up and told me that even though she's 5, she's still going to be scared of her scary dreams. They have a new pet fish in her preschool class... his name is Larry, and she's scared of it.

She likes to sing.... this is new. Especially her singing in PRIMARY. She always waves her arm around while she's singing like she's leading the song. She also LOVES to sing multiple verses of songs.

She loves the number 5 million. Every time we quantify anything, its 5 million... and she always says it holding her hands up, showing 10 fingers, but spread as far apart as she can do it.

Her interests are Power Rangers (and really, any other show on Jetix), Legos, cars, Egypt, mummies and Brendan.

She is constantly pushing and testing boundaries and seeing what she can get away with. She is exhausting. She'll ask me 15 times to do something I've already said "no" to and throw a tantrum every time I repeat no, as if its the first time. But she's also a nut, says things that make me laugh until I want to cry, loves her family with all her heart and in spite of all her trying personality traits, has a sweet heart. Our family would be sorely lacking if she wasn't with us.

This is just cute

I just thought she looked so cute pacing around the family room and patting his back like she's the mama.

Poor Mom

Evan was lamenting the lack of flashing lights on my shoes this morning.

Evan: Mom... green shoes?
Me: Thanks Evan (putting green shoes on)
Evan: Where lights, Mom?
Me: No, my shoes don't have lights.
Evan: Oh... no lights. Broken.


Becuase why would anyone make shoes without flashing lights???

Croak, Wheez, Wheez

I am silenced. I've lost my voice again and while it was kind of nice to escape speaking in sacrament meeting on Sunday (yeah, convenient, huh?), it was not worth losing my ability to communicate at all. What sounds I can make sound oddly harmonica like and are very annoying (though it occurs to me that perhaps many sounds that come out of my mouth are annoying). My kids are pretty concerned about my condition. Evan responds to me in whispers and Dani keeps asking me when I will get better. While I was running in the basement this morning, Dani couldn't find me, and of course, couldn't hear me attempting to call her from the basement. She was a bit panicked by the time I made it up sthe stairs to reval my location. Poor Jason has turned into my secretary, making phone calls and yelling at the kids for me. I'm supposed to show houses to a new client tomorrow, and though I'm hoping I'll have enough voice for it, Jason is planning on doing that too. Everyone suffers when Mom can't talk.

Ouch

Evan asked me for chocolate milk yesterday and since I never do ANYTHING for my kids without some kind of token preformance -- a dance or a quote, something to amuse the queen, ya know? As I poured the milk into the cup, I asked him who he loved. He replied, oh so matter-of-factly, "Dani." He clearly doesn't understand how to play my game yet.

What I love about Brendan at six months old

When I am feeding him, he loves to reach up and play with my face... sticking his fingers in my mouth, grabbing my nose (sometimes UP my nose, which we do try to avoid), stroking my cheeks.

He's a snuggler. When he's tired, he just lays his head on my chest and is content to be held.

He loves his mobile. Santa gave him a great mobile for Christmas that shines lights on the walls and ceilings in the dark. When we put him to bed, he automatically looks at the mobile, waiting for it to be turned on. Frequently when I put him to bed at night, I'll close the door so its nice and dark and turn on the mobile and hold him and we watch the lights together for a minute before I put him down. I wish I could get a picture of his face as he watches them -- he's so fascinated by it, but in the dark, its just impossible.



He can hold his own bottle!


The kids LOVE him. And now he's big enough that I'm not too nervous about letting them play with him. Literally, they could entertain Brendan all day long. They especially love it that he can now go in his jumper chair or his exersauser. New accessories to go with their favorite toy!

He's getting into a schedule of sorts. At the very least, I can count on him taking a solid nap in the morning so I can exercise. We're still working on consistently sleeping through the night, but I expect he'll be able to do it by the time he's 4 or 5.

He can get up on all fours! Usually, as soon as he gets up, his legs shoot out from under him and only succeeds in scooting backwards, but its so cute to see his tiny body doing such amazing feats!




He's a barfing machine. Ok, so I don't love that, but it must be mentioned -- the kid is just a spit up generator! His clothes, my clothes, the carpet, his toys, his sheets, his blankets -- if they're not soaked with barf, they are at least crusted with it!

He holds his bottle straw in his own mouth. I love this little gadget -- it has been such a lifesaver -- I can feed him in the car, while I'm shopping, on frantic Sunday mornings when there just isn't 20 minutes to sit around and feed him a bottle. Its not a perfect method, the bottle frequently falls out of his mouth and has to be put back in, but lately, he has figured out how to hold it in his mouth and how to get it back in on his own. Awesome.





He has such an infectious smile. It takes almost nothing to make him smile -- literally just looking at him brings on a big toothless grin. And when you see an adorable smile like this, you can't help but grin back

Vomit

Dani came down this morning and said, "Mudder, I'm sorry I barfed." I looked at her and sho' 'nuff, there were little barf blotches all over her pajamas. Went up to her bed and found dried barf all over her sheets -- its also in her hair... It appears she woke up in the night, threw up in her bed and went back to sleep in it. Part of me is totally disgusted, but more of me is thrilled that she didn't come wake me to clean it up in the middle of the night.

Found amongst Emily's homework papers

Once my Mom and Dad went to Lasvegs. They got my grandma to baby-sit. I knwo I would miss them. I seid to my sellf. at least I still have Dani and Evan. But I still had fun! My grandma had a spris [surprise] for me and my bothre Evan and sistur Dani. It was my ant Lani! Aftr my Mom and Dad left the next day she tlok us to Mcdonalds for dinner. Wen my Mom and Dad came dack thay borat us sprisis [surprises].

THIS is why I send her to preschool

Dani was demanding donuts after dinner tonight. There was nothing left in the donut bag except maybe 2 inches of donut dust, so I tried to convince her to be happy with some cookies. However, Dani shared a lesson she had learned from her preschool teacher, Ms. Katie, "MOM! We can't have cookies ALL the time! Ms. Katie said! They're made of SUGAR!" Poor Dani, if sugar will prevent her from eating cookies, how many more foods will be destroyed by Ms. Katie's rules??? Guess we'll have to start with those donuts!

At least they're entertaining themselves

Dani and Evan are playing hide-and-seek this morning -- in a manner that I've never seen before. First, the counting is a bit off -- Evan just counted "1..2..3..4....5...eleventeen, here I not!" Dani's counting isn't much more accurate. Then the hunt is cut considerably short by the fact that both of them tend to pick hiding places that are in plain sight (Dani's first hiding place was standing behind the glass french doors). And yet, they screech with glee and fake laughter (Evan doesn't do real laughter these days, just a forced horsey kind of laugh that I actually find almost as charming has his real laugh) when they discover each other. I'm quite amused by the whole process... I even tried to help Evan hide a little better, but he insisted on sitting between the wall and the couch, where Dani would see him the moment she rounded the corner. Obviously, I don't understand the game. At least its a game that I DON'T have to referee... and that I can laugh at -- cause what else are kids for?