My mom is amazing!

Taylor and I went through the single most dirty, stinky, messy, yucky experience of our parenting career to this point (let's hope we don't see much worse!). At about 1:04am Saturday morning, we heard a gagging noise from the boys' room. Matthias regularly makes cough/gag noises, so we ignored it. Then James started crying and came in our room. Being the excellent mother that I am I hurried to the bathroom when I heard him coming so Taylor would have to deal with him. =] (Lately he has been coming in our room about 2-3 nights a week and asking if he can sleep on the floor...I figured this was another such instance and Taylor could get him a pillow and blanket this time.)

Well, after listening to him cry for a couple minutes with no response, I came out. My nose was immediately accosted by the smell of vomit. "Taylor, it's smells like puke, bad." "I can't smell anything." I sniff James more closely, "Yeah, he stinks." My first thought..."If he is still sick tomorrow he won't be able to wear his Easter suit and his new killer whale tie!!"

I head into the bedroom and see that his bed is covered by about a 2 foot by 3 foot patch of throw up. I take James into the bathroom and turn on the light...he is covered from head to toe in throw up. By then Taylor has joined me and we clean up everything (including the floor between his room and ours) and get James back to bed (on our floor). Saying thanks that we have our own washer and dryer and no longer have to depend on a laundry mat.

This is where I realize my mom was amazing. This whole time not only was I getting more and more nauseous myself (due to smelling stinking barf, not due to any internal factors), but I kept thinking...I just want to go back to bed. Can't someone else clean this up? I'm tired. Thanks mom for always coming out and making sure I was okay when I threw up at night...even when I made it to the bathroom. You're great!

Pump it Up

Yesterday we had some fun at Pump it Up!! We have wanted to go back for a while now, so it was a lot of fun to take the boys yesterday with some friends. Now that we have been there four times James was totally loving everything and wasn't at all scared. He went through the obstacle course a dozen times and down the big slide a ton.




Matthias was fearless as always, but was too small to do anything himself. I took him on the big slide several times and through the obstacle course once. Other than that he just had a blast bouncing in the bouncer or just jumping on the pads at the end of the slides. We love Pump it Up!

James and Mom (and books)

James and I had a rough start this week, but have since figured each other out again. Yesterday he picked a beautiful flower for me that we put in some water and set on the counter. He is so thoughtful and loving!

Whenever we sit down for dinner James asks Taylor, "So, how was your day?". Yesterday we sat down for dinner before Taylor got home, so James turned to me and said, "How was your day Mom?" Me: "I was with you all day. We did the same things." James: "What did you do when I took a nap, when I was sleeping?" Me: "You didn't take a nap." He is so silly. So then I told him about what I did even though he was there for all of it.

Also, James and reading have been asked about...All I can say is James loves to read and I would like to take the credit, but I don't know that I can. James LOVES reading, Matthias is finally starting to hold still for 2-3 minutes. Matthias will bring us books because he likes to sit in our laps, but can only make it through one. I did read to James more as a baby, but even when I tried with Matthias he was out of my arms as soon as he could figure out how, so part of it really is personality.

The longest consecutive time I have read to James is probably 40 minutes and then we stopped because the book was over. I honestly think James may be able to read indefinitely. Even at age one he would sit for 15 minutes or more for a book. When he was 6 months old I remember reading 2 or 3 books in a row to him (and he could crawl at this age, so he could have escaped if he wanted to). James has such a love for reading that I fear he may be as bad as Taylor and I when he gets older. My best friend and I used to lay on the lawn during the summer and read books all day. Taylor rarely puts a book down until he has read front to back (so we always hope for short ones!)

James gets so intrigued with what we are reading and really gets into the plots and characters. Sometimes during chapter books he just stares off into space and I swear he isn't paying attention and then he'll bring up details or ask about why someone did something. He has amazing reading comprehension and obviously I am biased, but he really remembers everything!

My tricks? I have none. I wish I did have a formula to create an avid reader, then I would use it on Matthias. But I continue to read to Matthias every night before bed and he is getting better. Happy reading!!

Ahh, lumbar support...

Finally I can blog in comfort (and without squeaking). While I was convinced some WD-40 would solve the problem, Taylor insisted that our blogging/computer chair was not ergonomic enough. So hence the new addition to our study.

Before:


After:

I apologize to anyone reading this blog that may (hypothetically) be confined to a bed with his/her leg propped up and is very jealous of my new chair. Your day will come.

Mathy Fun and lots of Reading!

We checked out several of the Sir Cumference books yesterday from the library and they are great! While James did get a little bored during the math (mostly geometry) discussions at the end, the rest of the book was entertaining and fun. We got Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter and Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone.

Another book we happened upon at the library is The Bugliest Bug which turned out to be a fun read!

Also, I am looking for any one's suggestions on short chapter books/series to read with James. We read The Spiderwick Chronicles recently and he LOVED them. Something about 100 pages long and fairly simple. We also really enjoy the Magic Treehouse series. These two series claim they are for 9-12 and 4-8, so anything in that range.

Let me know if you have great ideas! Thanks and happy reading!

Luck of the Irish

A little leprechaun visited our house last night and left us a pot of gold! The boys were very excited to see it this morning...yum! Daddy also went into work late so we could all have green pancakes together. They were so tasty!



Tonight for dinner we will be having some Irish dinner-corned beef, cabbage, and red potatoes. Plus some green jello!!

Also, we found out last night we may have actually missed St. Patrick's Day as it was moved by the Roman Catholic Church to March 15th this year since today is Holy Monday. But I'll still pinch you today if I catch you without some green on!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Shop, shop, shop

Me and some friends (Kim, Nannette, Shelley, and Mary) went out to the San Marcos outlet malls this weekend and had a blast!! There are two outlet malls out there-Tanger and Prime. We got three hours of shopping in on Friday night and then had a late dinner (9:30). We stayed in a hotel that night and then shopped all day Saturday. I spent the 2nd least, but lost the contest for whose husband calls the most. I say it's because we love each other the most, but everyone else claims it's because we're the most newly wed. Plus they counted texts...hardly fair.

So the big finds: I got a shirt for $1!! And an easter dress and a purse I was hoping to find.

One of the best finds was some winter gear for the boys for 50 cents each! Since it's in the 80s out here now, I figure they need it...really it's for next winter when we visit Utah. They love their new hats and gloves and the frog shirts I bought them.