How do they do it?

Well, last night I was really happy to get to bed relatively early. The kiddos were both asleep, and I was just really tired for some reason, so I was going to zonk out right along with them. Unfortunately, things rarely turn out the way you want them too.

Serayah got hit really hard with some awful tummy bug. I won't go into detail, but just say that the sick-bowl and the toilet were both used a lot... I had changed the sheets once, and we were back in bed (I was laying down with her in hopes to get the bowl to her quickly enough to avoid a big mess... you know how it is), and she had just fallen asleep. I closed my eyes, and heard a piercing scream from Cam's room. Why, oh why did Art have to work last night? I looked at the clock. 12:15. Great. I stumbled into see what was going on, and ended up staying with him for an hour. He kept saying his tummy hurt, and would toss and turn, then sleep for like 4 minutes, then wake back up wanting me. No idea what was going on there, but I didn't want to risk him throwing-up too, so I wanted to make sure he was OK.

I'd just about gotten him settled when Serayah started crying. Crap. I book it into her room, and the poor thing was just sitting in the middle of our bed getting so sick and just shaking. She was worried that I was going to be mad at her (which broke my heart). I got the shower going, and her stripped and in it, while I stripped down the bed and cleaned up. Miraculously, Cam decided all was well after this, and was sleeping. Whatever... I'll take small favors in whatever form they take.

I get Serayah in her 4th pair of PJ's, and we come downstairs and snuggle up on the couch. Thankfully, my dad's here, so I had him come up and sleep in Serayah's bed to keep an ear out for Cam, so I could take care of Serayah and not wake her up during the little bits she was sleeping. I think it was 2:30 or so by then. Serayah finally stopped getting sick around 3:30, and she seems to be feeling better (but not great) this morning. Art came in around 7:00, and my dad told me to go to bed and try and get some sleep, and that he'd take care of Cam when he woke up. God bless my dad. I was able to sleep 'till 10:3o.

This just made me realize how lucky I am to have a husband (yeah, he's on nights right now, but usually he's here during the night, and is more that willing to help clean-up and get up with sick kids (or mommies, for that matter)), and a dad who are so great. There are so many single parents that have multiple kids, and I just don't know how they keep it together to take care of sick kids through the night, then get up and face the day, without any help or support.

I think we're in trouble....

Cam's Dance Class

As promised, here are a few quick snaps from Cam's Thursday morning dance class. He's in a class full of babes. He had some competition with another little boy this week, but he's still got Tanner and Dianni in his sights.

He actually really enjoys the class. It usually takes him a few minutes before he jumps in, but fun is always had by all. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Cam Marching
Tanner

Cam eyeing Tanner (He's got a major crush)

Cam's dancing so fast, he's a blur!

Miss Dianni

Cam, practicing his rolls

Cam... giving Dianni a hand with her roll

Bowling Fun

Yesterday, my dad and I took the kids bowling after Cam got out of his dance class (I'll be posting pictures from that pretty soon). The kids had a lot of fun... Serayah was thrilled no matter what happened. Pins fell... Pins didn't fall... It was all good to her. I hurled a gutter-ball, and she came running up to me "High Five, Momma! Great job! You did it!". Always good to have a cheerleader. Cam had fun too... for the first 4 balls. Then he was bored. The machine that dispenses bowling stuff was a lot more entertaining. Oh well... it was nap time, and he was pretty tired. All in all we had a great time. As we left, Serayah looked bummed. I asked what was wrong, and she said "Momma? I want to live at the bowling alley!". Ahhh... the dreams one has at the ripe old age of 4 1/2.

Oh, and we made a 1/2 birthday cake for Serayah today. Cam's was on Valentine's day, and we made him one too... I guess its the start of a new tradition.

Enjoy the pics! You can see how much they loved cheering for each other.

Bath time fun

Here are a few shots I took of the kids in the bath yesterday. As you can tell from the back of teh tub, the new bathtub markers have been popular! They really wanted to wear the swim goggles... but Cam took his off after a minute or two. Poor Serayah's face still doesn't look too great, but it's getting better!

We had a bad day.

Well, yesterday our good friend MaryAnne had a surprise 30th birthday party. The kids and I went (& I know she was really surprised), ate cake, then left. We walked out to the parking lot, and I opened Cam's door and was buckling him in. Serayah ran (after I had just gotten done talking about not running) to the other side, and I suddenly heard a thud... followed by screaming. Crap. I ran over, and Serayah was laying face down on the asphalt, screaming. She'd slipped on some ice and done a header onto the parking lot. Her princess glasses (which, as you may recall, we had just gotten replacement frames for last week after she'd done a header off the arm of the couch) were shattered, and she had blood in her hair, but I was able to get her calmed down and in her car seat.

I drove back home, and we rushed inside to better assess the damage. After giving some Tylenol and using the pretty princess boo-boo freezer pad, she was curled up in my lap on the couch, and things seemed to be going OK. My dad, who's here from Oregon, went upstairs to get the kids jammies, and Cam went up after him. All of a sudden, I hear a Thud... Thunk.... Thud.... I (unfortunately) had heard that one before, and jumped up... chucked Serayah on the couch and ran to the stairs. Crap. Cam had taken a header down them. Not good.

Fortunately, Cam is made of rubber, and after some Tylenol for him and some cuddling, he was right as rain in about 5 minutes. My heart returned back to normal about an hour later, and I was afraid to let the kids do anything else for the rest of the night. Sigh.

Well, we were pleasantly surprised this morning to see that Serayah didn't look like she'd gone 8 rounds with the champ, and that CPS wouldn't be called in for child abuse if a neighbor saw her. We really thought she'd end up with a shiner of astronomical proportions, but it doesn't look too bad. The picture actually looks better than it is, 'cause you can't tell how swollen it is when she's posed like that.

Cam wanted in on the photo op, so he returned to the scene of the crime, and posed for me on the stairs.

The other shot is a random one from Serayah the other day...

Will he use his powers for good or evil?

So the other night, I took a bath. When I take a bath, I lock our bedroom door to ensure that my bath doesn't turn into a big 'ol party. I was happily reading a mindless fluff book, and was tuning out the background noise.

In case you were wondering, this is background noise sounds like ~ Banging on the door w/ little voices calling out "Mom? Are you in there? Why are you in there by yourself? What are you doing? Are you taking a bath? Huh Mom? Are you taking a bath? I wanna take a bath? How come you're in the bathtub? Why can't I be in the bath? I'm taking of my clothes! I'm naked!...." You get the picture.

Anyway, my bath the other night was pretty mellow... not much door knocking or little voices. I got out of the tub and got my jammies on, when all of a sudden I heard the door open, and little feet came running in... Huh.

"Hey... did Daddy open the door?" I asked Serayah.
"Nope... it was open"
Cam was just grinning... not good.
I check out Cam, and he's got one of Serayah's hair clips in his hand.
"Hey Cam... what's up with the hairclip?"

I get another grin. Then he turns around, and goes to the outside of the door, sticks in the clip, and proceeds to lock the door from the outside. Then grins again.

Given, these locks aren't hard to turn... they've got a "key hole", which you can put a fingernail into and turn to unlock the door... but, cripes! He's only 2! I'm not ready for this yet! I want to take baths all by myself sometimes! Is this too much to ask????

Well, Serayah and I went back downstairs. Art asked where Cam was, and I told him that he was upstairs, practicing popping locks (which he was).

Yeesh.

How time flies!

My friend, MaryAnne posted a blog with pictures of her girls when they were babies. It made me want to do the same....

Ouch!

Well... apparently, Serayah has delusions of having superpowers. I'm not exactly sure what she was thinking, but she decided it would be a good idea to leap over a stack of pillows by jumping off the arm of the couch. I was not in the room at the time (bad mommy), but I heard the thud and subsequent wailing. Honestly, Serayah's pretty tough, so when she starts crying like that I knew something was horribly wrong. I ran into see what happened, and she was sobbing... holding her beloved Princess Glasses (which were broken clean in two at the bridge). I was afraid that she had gotten seriously hurt. Nope... although I know that rug-burn/thunk had to hurt, the real problem was the broken glasses. After I had assured her that I wasn't mad that her glasses were broken, and that we'd be able to replace them (thank you for the automatic 2 year warranties that come with kids glasses at our opthamologist's office), the tears stopped, and she wanted to try again. Obviously, I put a big 'ol kibosh on that (we'd just discussed jumping on the couch the night before), so she was bummed. Other than that, all was well with the world. She told me "I'm not gonna smile, 'cause I want grandpa to think I'm sad 'cause I broke my glasses". Okey dokey. Here's here non-smiling picture, which I took the next day.

Here she comes... Serayah the Diva!

Well, yesterday I cut Cam's hair. It was, once again, a traumatic experience. He just sat shaking all over, then had to be put in the shower when it was all over. He hates the shower. He screamed and shook the entire time. I have no idea what that's all about, but whatever.

Anyway, I cut it really short and wanted to take a picture. I brought out the camera, then out of nowhere, Serayah comes running over and wants in the action. I started to take their pictures by the front door in front of a blank wall, but Serayah wanted to sit on the stairs. Usually, I get a loud "CHEEEEEEEEESE!" from both of them, but last night Serayah was in fine form. I asked her to put her head down just a bit (to try and avoid flash-glare on her glasses), and she started posing like a contestant on America's Next Top Model. It was hysterical... She would give me serious looks, look at me from over her shoulder, give me 1/2 smiles, lay down on the stairs... you name it. It was like a mini photo session! We had so much fun...

I won't bombard you with many of the pictures from our "shoot", but here are a few I liked a lot, as well as a shot of Cam's new haircut and a shot of them together as well.... Enjoy!

Sleep with one (or two) eyes open... with your dinosaur, of course

A couple things about this post...

When you first start dating someone, all is bliss. You're so head-over-heels, that every little thing that they do is charming. You don't notice (or care) that they feel the need to get a new glass with every one of their 9 glasses of milk a day. You think the fact that they can't sit still while on the phone (if they actually answer it) and must do speed circuits around the house while talking is cute.

Then later... when the hearts fade a bit out of your eyes... things start to bug you a bit. Then they drive you nuts. Then you get married. Then 13 years go by. OK... by the time you're married for a while, the things either still drive you nuts (my grandparents were married for 50+ years and my grandpa's pseudo-whistling in the car would still produce teeth-grinding, lip-pursing stares out of the window by grandma. I'm pretty sure he knew, but he just kept on whistlin'... I swear that occasionally I'd see him slip her a glance, then grin... but he might have just been happy to see her there... might have). Anyway, you either let the quirks bug you, or you get over it.

One of the things that Art did at the beginning was fall asleep with his eyes open. The first few times he did it, it really creeped me out. Now, I don't even notice... and actually, he doesn't really do it anymore anyway. Anyway, he still has some quirks that get to me (see pacing/milk-cups at top of page), but others I've gotten over (the inability to swallow fluids without getting a big mouthful then taking 4 rather loud gulps to get it all down... no one else ever seems to notice it, but it took me a good 7 or 8 years to get past that one).

Well, I guess some quirks are passed down. Both of our kids must pace circuits while on the phone, and Cam sleeps with his eyes open. Whatever.

Cam must also have "Tromp the Dinosaur" to get to sleep. Tromp doesn't have to go anywhere with us (unless its an overnight trip), and can stay home and guard his bed, but when bedtime comes, Tromp is clamped into his arm, and Tromp's poor little head or tail goes in Cam's mouth. Fortunately, Tromp is machine washable (thank you, Ty corporation). We have 3 Tromps in rotation to facilitate washing. I know that Tromp is looking kinda gross, but after 2 years, that's pretty much what they look like right out of the dryer.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of Cam yesterday afternoon while he was napping on the couch.

Random pictures

Well, I don't have anything really interesting to post. It's been really cold here lately, and the other day we woke up to a serious frost. Here's a picture of a tree in our neighborhood. Also, a couple pictures of the kids. The one of them together was taken while they were curled up together on the couch watching WALL-E. Enjoy!

Snow fun

Well, we've still got the snow that came before Christmas... It doesn't get above freezing much here. We got another 1/2 inch or so last night, but nothing to get excited about.

The kids were getting a bit house-bound, so this afternoon we bundled them up and let them run around in the yard. Here are some pictures from their adventures. Oh, and the one of Cam licking the snow cracked me up! The picture below was after he realized that his face was getting really cold from the face plants. That kid really does make me laugh.

Mom... why are there socks in the fishtank?

This was hollered down the stairs by Serayah earlier this evening.

"What?!?!" I yell.
"Why are there socks in the fish tank?" pipes Serayah
"Socks...like you wear on your feet?!!?" (I'm clearly not getting this)
"Yeah"

Huh. I run upstairs to her room, and sure enough, there are two single socks... one beige, and one hot pink one (which float rather nicely about mid depth), one pair of red and white socks folded up from Cam's sock drawer (which sink), 2 of my ponytail holders (which sink), about 15 of Serayah's itty-bitty ponytail holders (which float), and a blue car (that I found later behind the fake frog on the bottom).

She's got 4 fish in there, 2 bigger white fish, and 2 smaller red fish. One of the red fish is pretty dumb and tends to swim into the side of the tank on a regular basis... I'm pretty sure it was the one trying to eat the beige sock. On a positive note, fabric softener doesn't appear to be overly toxic to fish. I'll let you know if there are any fish fatalities in the next few days.

"DANG IT!" I yelled (I was seriously proud of my verbal restraint)...to which Serayah started running around with her hands on her hips saying "Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!..."

"What on earth happened???"

One word... say it with me... "Camden"

Christmas Eve

Well, as is our tradition, we opened our gifts from family and friends tonight after we went out for some Chinese food (don't knock tradition!) and looked at Christmas lights.

After eating, we were setting out on our Christmas light adventure, and lo and behold, a low-flying red light glowed in the sky and flew right over us, and away! We pointed this out to Serayah, who was thrilled to have the chance to see Rudolf in person. We kept our eyes and ears open, but I guess Santa had made an early stop, because there were no more Reindeer or Sleigh sightings over Northern Utah.

After we got home, we opened our gifts, and Serayah and Cam both got new jammies, among other things. Their favorite things seemed to be a new WALL•E table and chairs, as well as a plastic food and pot/pan set. Who knew? Cam especially was thrilled with the play food, and proceeded to gather up all the food and plunk it down on the table and have at it. We had to tear him away to get him to finish opening up his gifts! Here are a couple of pictures of the kids in their new PJ's playing.







Now, I've explained to Serayah that Santa only comes when you're sleeping (because children's dreams are the key to his magic), so she knew that she would have to go to sleep for the big-guy to make his appearance. After everything was opened, she looked at us and asked about bed time. I reminded her that she'd have to go to sleep for Santa to come, so she took one look at me and proceeded to book up the stairs. We had to call her back to get kisses and hugs! (If only Santa came every night, and bedtime could be this easy). I read a couple of books to her and turned out her light and a little voice called out "Mommy... am I dreaming yet?" The excitement did keep her up for a bit, but it didn't take long before she drifted off.


Well, I'd better go, so I can get to my dreams too... Maybe Santa will leave something for me as well.


Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good night.