unhealthy competition

i almost don't even know what to write about tonight. i'm sick, i'm tired, and i'm tired of being sick.

i did see the ears, nose, and throat doctor again today. the x-rays were inconclusive, so i go in for a CT scan in three weeks. he thinks that there is a good chance i will have to have surgery. let's see... that would bring my surgery total up to eight.

i can't remember what dad's score is. he just had surgery on his right wrist for carpel tunnel syndrome. PLUS he is going to have it on the other wrist. i always thought that somehow fate made us take turns on having to have surgery until we recently realized that we're pretty close on the number that each of us has had. now it's a competition. of course.

nathan made me aware of something today. did you know that the ABC's song is the medley from 'twinkle, twinkle little star?' i had no idea!

swine... bronchitis?

so, it's apparently time for my monthly cycle. my monthly cycle of sinusitis and bronchitis, that is! had you freaked out a bit didn't i ;) seriously... i am miserable and this is getting old.

i did ask my family doctor about the swine flu. he said what makes it worse than influenza a or b is that people don't have a natural immunity built up against it yet. as long as it's treated early, it isn't any more harmful than the other two. but, just like the other two, it can be harmful if not treated early. SO, don't kiss any pigs, but if you do, get treated as soon as possible!

elise did something funny tonight. i think she was playing peek-a-boo with the light on the baby monitor. she would look at it and smile, then turn her head away real quick, and then abruptly look back and smile and laugh. she did it several times. it was cute :)

a long day

we got up and went to the Y again today. i swam nine laps. the next time i go i am going to up it to twelve :) i took my new swiMP3 player... i love it! oh yes, i have a toy for playing music under water!

nathan starts training for another triathlon tomorrow morning at 5:30! the triathlon is in mid-july at alum creek park. i would love this a whole lot more if i didn't have to get up and take him.

nathan had martial arts today. he is a blue belt in taekwondo and hapkido and studies at central ohio martial arts.

while nathan was in class, i went to the grocery store today with the girls all by myself, thank you! i feel like i very successfully accomplished something today.

AND i cooked breakfast, did a load of laundry, a load of dishes, picked up taco bell, and put up the groceries.

just don't tell my dad... he thinks i just sit home and eat bon bons in front of the tv all day. i enjoy the envy that goes along with him thinking that ;)

swimming

we went to the Y today. nathan works out with the weights, shelby goes to the toddler playroom, elise goes to the nursery and whew! if i have energy left after all of that, then i swim my laps ;)

shelby went right into the play room like she hadn't missed a beat! going there really helped with her separation anxiety. they are real good about telling her that 'mommy always comes back.' and i like to hear how well behaved and helpful she is all the time :)

elise fussed, but her big brother came to her rescue! he heard crying and recognized her cry so he went into the nursery and helped them with her. he gave her my shirt and rocked her for awhile. she started crying so he came and got me. isn't he great! :)

i took shelby swimming. i don't know what happened, but she figured it all out today! we worked on jumping in the water, blowing in the water and putting her face in, and kicking for months. today she all of a sudden started doing all three! she was doing so well that i started letting her go under the water when she jumped in. she did great! pretty soon she'll be swimming laps with me :)

trabble and babble

we were in youngstown today for granny's 84th birthday! i come from good stock (as my aunt kay says) and will most likely have many many years to enjoy. my granny says that the "good stock" is the blair in us, which is her maiden name. since today is her birthday, we'll go with that ;) for her birthday i dressed the girls up in the dresses that she bought them. they were adorable! granny loves baby girls in pretty dresses.

she got her fill of babies, that's for sure. we were there, karen was there with her two babies. ken, lydia, and granny stopped and visited sandy and gabrielle the other day. and dave and jen were there with their baby. okay, jen isn't due until september, but that's besides the point. the point is, granny had a great birthday with her great-grand babies!

elise started to babble today! all of a sudden she realized that she could control sounds. it was really cool! there seems to be a lot of ba-ba-ba-ba and a little da-da-da-da. we're working on ma-ma-ma-ma. might as well work on getting it right as soon as possible ;) she talked up a storm, it was funny. she talked in the van quite a bit on the way home, and was so excited to talk that she had a hard time nursing and going to sleep tonight! i suppose we'll be telling her to "shhh" now for the next 18 years, right!?

blowing in the wind

shelby all of a sudden realized that she has hair today, i think! okay, she knows she has hair, but today she figured out that she likes to shake it in the wind. we went for a walk at my dad's and she lifted her head up and shook her hair. done in true star fashion ;) it was pretty funny. i may put her in dresses, but she comes up with this prissy stuff all on her own!

happy easter!

we had easter with mom and bob today. we started out the day at church with mom. i believe shelby and elise were the prettiest girls there ;) shelby wore a pink dress, and elise a white one that granny bought for them. nathan was definitely the most comfortable, handsome guy there. all the other guys were dressed up and had on ties, nathan wore jeans and a nice polo. i told him to just ignore the glares he was going to get from the older people, and from all of the jealous men and boys!

we had spaghetti at mom's, and then both of the babies fell asleep. it was cute. i decided to torture them by keeping them in their dresses... they were such dolls! they fell asleep in the bed together and it was too adorable. they looked like sleeping angels.

while they were napping we went out to check out nathan's new bike. hee hee. bob was working on it and lost most of it. the only thing left was the seat attached to one wheel! okay, it was a unicycle. it was hysterical watching him try to ride it! oh yes, i have pictures.

happy pre-easter!

we celebrated easter at dad's today.

karen, sandy, and i took the babies to jcpenney's to get an easter picture taken. that was fun! the appointment was at 12:20, so it didn't take very long for shelby and elise to start showing that their nap time is at 1:00. elizabeth was trying to escape like elizabeth apparently always does when she's out. occasionally shelby would follow when karen chased after her. yep, we let the 8 month pregnant chick chase the toddlers! gabrielle was the sweet one for the day ;)

shelby and elise wore dresses that granny had bought them. shelby wore her white one, and elise her pink. pay attention because tomorrow they'll where the same dresses on the opposite kids! nathan didn't go to get his pictures taken today. he refused to wear an easter dress, nor did he want to come and hang out with his mom, aunts, and girl cousins. can you believe it!

i have elise's first 'sitting up' pictures! she sort of did it the other day, but today she sat up real well. her and gabrielle were visiting :) it was very cute.

check-ups

we saw dr. harper today. he's been our family doctor for 13 years! nathan had his yearly physical and elise had her four month checkup.

nathan officially broke 100 pounds! he weighs 107 pounds and is 5' 4.25". he was vaccinated against meningitis and isn't feeling very well this evening. other than that, he is happy and healthy!

elise weighs 21 pounds! she's in the 99.7th percentile for height, and her weight seems to keep climbing the charts above that. the doctor said that i need to limit her to three meals and two snacks per day. any other time that she wants to nurse i need to give her a water bottle, try a pacifier again, or at the very least keep her intake to a minimum if she's nursing outside of her meals and snacks. she got her four month vaccinations and has a slight fever tonight.

shelby didn't have an appointment. she doesn't have to go back until she's five. she did, however, get a sucker :) way to go shelby!

we went to dinner with the coles tonight. it was me and sandra and seven kids! it's not as bad as it sounds, really. her oldest is 18, then she has a 14, 12, and 10 year old. between them and nathan, they take care of shelby and elise.

sandra asked shelby what elise's name was... she said phat fat! how funny is that! i took a little video of it, i'll see if i can upload it tomorrow. it's hysterical right now, but we'll need to stop that pretty quickly!

a status report of sorts

the wheels are definitely turning in shelby's pretty little head. today when she didn't want to eat her vegetables, she waited until i left the kitchen and emptied her bowl into the trash. the child in me was really proud of her. the mother in me has to figure out how to get this kid to eat her vegetables!

nathan spent the day working on math. we use the math-u-see curriculum. he has been doing online drills to speed up his multiplication facts and practice sheets full of fraction problems. it takes you back, doesn't it ;) not only does his learning take me back down learning memory lane, but i have to remember how to do all of this shtuff! i'm not complaining, actually. i love it. it's the closest i'll ever come to being a professional student :)

elise had three meals of cereal today. it took us two weeks to get this whole swallowing trick down! we've only been doing one or two meals a day. now that more is going in than is coming out onto the bib, we can eat it more often!

stephon is working out again. i am quietly excited about it! quiet because if i make it seem like i want him to do it, he'll stop just out of stubbornness. he thinks he's such a rebel when he feels that someone is telling him what to do. i think it's funny.

me? i'm absolutely, completely, undeniably blessed to have the opportunity to be home with my kids! i have been working on teaching shelby, guiding nathan, caring for elise, and being stephon's personal assistant. i get to torment them all with my need to have everything scheduled, structured, organized, and exactly how it should be to the nth degree. who could ask for more ;)?

mommy's homemade shake and bake

i tried this for dinner... it is so good! i used it on pork chops, but it would be good on chicken or veal as well.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
10 teaspoons olive oil
3 1/2 teaspoons old bay seasoning
2 tablespoons dry parsley
2 cups italian seasoned breadcrumbs
4 eggs
1/3 cup milk

Directions:
preheat oven to 400 degrees

combine dry ingredients
add oil
mix well
line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil
spray with olive oil cooking spray
mix eggs with milk
dip each piece of meat into the egg mixture
cover each piece of meat in the bread crumb mixture

bake at 400 for 30 minutes

ears, nose, and throat

i had an appointment with the ears, nose, and throat doctor today. they did an x-ray and everything looked okay. i am supposed to go back in the next time i get a sinus infection. that shouldn't take too long. if someone drives by the house with a cold i'll catch it and end up with a sinus infection! i am getting them about every two months now. maybe they'll stop now that i've seen a doctor about them :P

poor nathan got left in the waiting room with two very unhappy babies! it was nap time and both of them were really grouchy. i do not take it for granted that i am very blessed to have such good help at times like this when i need it!

the next step in potty training

the girls and i went to academy park today. stephon had to go into work today and nathan was with parish so i braved it alone with two babies! we did good :) i took them in their new double-wide stroller.

shelby overcame her objection to public restrooms. i was prepared for either way, but she did it! no accidents, woo hoo!

elise watched shelby and the other kids playing. she wants to get out there and play so bad! i bet she walks early just to catch up, keep up, and play with her big sister.

L... M... N... O... P... Q... Burger... S... T... U... V...

we went for a walk today. it was really pretty out... i would say it was about 60 degrees and sunny... just perfect :)

shelby surprised nathan and i when she picked up sticks and started making letters out of them! and she was correct when she did it! she made an X, Y, E, F, and U. smart AND creative. she gets that from me ;)

what's really funny to me regarding her letters is the letter R. she calls it burger. we have no idea why.

an experiment gone awry...

the girls and i met terry at chipotle's for lunch today :) i haven't seen her in ... forever! it was wonderful to chat and catch up.

the plan was to sit and hang out in a public place, at an off hour, over non-carpeted floors and wait to see what shelby will do when she needs to go po-eee. she wouldn't go. we went to the restroom a number of times, and she will not use that toilet. i even have a little portable potty seat for her. she's not feeling the public restrooms yet. can't say that i blame her, i guess.

nathan picked out new glasses today! woo hoo! the one's he has are a couple of years old and have had issues since day one. i'm relieved, so i know he's ecstatic. they essentially look the same to me as the one's he currently wears, but the metal frames are painted black this time. he went way out on that one, let me tell you!

potty trained!

we have changed our last shelby poo poo diaper! woo hoo! she lets me know when she needs to go (po-eee!) and has even surprised us by getting on the potty all by herself. it took four days. seriously.

it was a disney princess potty training extravaganza. she picked out a princess potty seat at the store on sunday, and we began her princess training on monday, march 23. granny had given her a princess wand while we were in huntsville that she held while she sat on her throne. believe it or not, there was a website on the potty seat package where i could download a matching princess potty chart. and lastly, there were princess stickers at the grocery store. kind of makes you a little nauseous, doesn't it.

there is a little cynical satisfaction that you can get out of this as well... since none of you will appreciate not having to change her diapers. just know that she has been 'pee-pee'ing' and 'poo-poo'ing' on the princesses ;)