about holly

i thought i'd take a break at work to write about holly. 

she's 3 years, 1-1/2 months old.

she likes to sleep with mommy.  and when she's "really really sick" (her words, she just had a bad cold), it is a great excuse to do it for consecutive nights. (i have a hard time saying no.)

sometimes, she gets up really early to take a shower with mommy.

she likes to help cook.  when making little pizzas, she likes to sing patty cake.

she really likes pizza.  and mushrooms, raw.

she's a really good helper. 

she's never had a haircut. 

she does not like the vacuum because it is loud.

she likes raw carrots but only whole (not baby carrots).

she does not like to race.

she likes to watch belle, but she thinks she is sleeping beauty.

holly will only eat vanilla ice cream, and prefers it in a cone and with sprinkles.
she's a good matcher, and she likes to wear big bows in her hair.

she's actually pretty good at washing windows.

holly loves to have her nails polished:  she thinks the metallic colors have sprinkles in them.

granddaddy calls her puddin'.  holly says "i not puddin'".  so, she calls him granddaddy puddin'.

she likes to dress herself.

she has 4 pairs of boots.

she thinks deodorant goes on boobies.

she can ride in an elevator now without freaking out.

she likes to twirl.

she can whistle, but it is a suck-in whistle and really deep in tone.

she smiles all the time.

she loves to write and draw, though Hs and Os are the only letters she's good at so far.

she likes animals, but she isn't smitten with them.  too many swats and bites from the cats.

she is shy a little, and soft a lot.

how my 4 year old came to wear glasses (farsighted, +10/+9.5)

how did i know he needed him?  i didn't. i'm still in shock that he has them.  the past week is just a blur to me.  i have 20/10 vision and my husband doesn't wear glasses either.   late this summer (when he was still 3), kendal started doing this "trick" where he'd straighten out his eye and say "look mom, there is 2 of you!" i thought it was just a trick- like crossing eyes (which he would occasionally do too, but on  purpose) and i never thought much about the eye straightening thing because i can do it too (if you can see those stereo/3D pictures - the wavy kind you have to stare at, not the kind with glasses - then you can straighten out your eyes too).  he was just doing it SO often (like every day) that it got me worried.  i didn't find much about it online, but i DID figure out that age 3 - 5 is when they should see the eye doctor for the first time.  so, i made him an appointment (for about a month later, that's when it fit in my schedule so i didn't have to take off work).  of coarse, he stopped doing the "i see 2 of you" thing.  so, i figured it was a trick afterall.  his appointment was at a regular eye doctor.

you know the machine you put your nose up to and they figure out what your prescription is?  well, that machine said he was  +8/+8 (farsighted).  this was at the regular eye doctor.  she said that this was really strong and, though she said that kids have a hard time relaxing their eyes so he COULD be tricking the machine, he would need to see a specialist.  she also described other things that would be sorta "signs and symptoms" of a farsighted child and, well, i was pretty sure he was not tricking it all the way.  so we quickly got into a specialist (pediatric ophthalmologist) and, turns out he wasn't tricking it at all. 

here are some facts about kendal that, turns out, may be related to his vision and not his personality.  i should start by saying  kendal could see the moon, and see the tiniest ant on the ground.  to me, that meant he could see just fine. i could not be more wrong!!!  his eyes were working hard to see that tiny ant, and maybe the moon too!

1.  at 4 years old, he can easily take a 3 hour nap STILL, every day and still go to bed at 8pm and sleep all night.  his poor eyes and brain need the rest from all that work they are doing to focus.  

2.  though he can write and draw, he ONLY likes to do it large.  you know the little lined paper they use at school?  his writing is horrible.  i always chalk it up to the fact he is a lefty.  no.  it is more likely because he couldn't see those dang lines.  (farsighted - can't see up close, can see far away things better.)  

3.  he also is not good at coloring in the lines - compared to other kids his age.  i always just thought it was because he was a lefty.  lefty's are special by themselves... holly, his 2-3/4 year old sister, is a better writer and colorer than him, and she's 14 months younger. (well, she technically can't write ALL her letters yet, but the ones she does write she can write neater and smaller than him.  she also is way better with details, which is probably because she can see them and not because she is any smarter or brighter.)

4. he avoids writing by saying "i can't do it, please help me"

5. he memorizes books - like the i spy books, which had convinced me that he could see clearly, he truly had them memorized.  all 12 that we have.

6.  i could go ON!!!

so when we picked up his $300 twistable and bendable and non-breakable (supposedly) glasses yesterday, and first he was shy, then he was fascinated with his feet.  it was adorable. he said "i can see where i'm walking!" he's asked twice to take (the glasses) off.  but, he hasn't seemed to mind wearing them.  they haven't slipped any (or much) which is surprising because of how thick they are.  they are buggy on his face - i mean, they look like magnifying glasses on his eyes.  i don't know how he sees in them (far away).   i guess i just have to trust that doctor knows what he's doing.  no, i don't guess, i know he knew what he was doing.  (dr. jordan at raleigh ophthomology if anyone is interested.)  

kendal can see the moon.  so, he can see his feet and the moon.  two very important things.  another very important thing that it took me 2 days to figure out is that he is still kendal, just with glasses.  he still acts like a 4 year old (WILD!) - and even worse, now that he can SEE i think i need to get his ears checked because his ears have stopped working!!!

since he has gotten the glasses, he has stopped squinting, his eyes have opened wider than ever before, he has not stopped moving (i.e. moving faster than the speed of sound), he is counting everything,  and is talking about things that he has seen every day of his life like barns, trees, horses, etc.  last night, he wrote between the lines for the FIRST TIME EVER.  he still writes sloppy but that will take practice!

here are some (a lot) of pictures.  remember, his prescription was +10/+9.5 and his astigmatism is 0.5/1.5 at 90.  he looks adorable with them.  i wish i had noticed sooner, but i'm glad i made the appointment and followed the advice of the 1st doctor, and then was placed with dr. jordan.  i am 100% pleased with our results.

see how he is squinting with them off?

happy to see!

11 Step Program for Those Thinking of Having Kids

Here is a very humorous note that's being shared on Facebook.  I'm not sure who the original author is to give credit to, but it's too cute not to post here.  Enjoy and pass it along!

Lesson 1 

1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner.)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive).

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a preschool child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice.) If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine-month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say "it's all worth it"! Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

pretend gas pumps

when i was little, both of my grandfathers owned and operated gas stations.  i grew up knowing about changing tires, pumping gas, and running a cash register.

i was just sitting on the floor playing with kendal and holly as they played with their fisher price garage.  they love to put the cars (or just the people) on the ramp and watch them spiral down.  i like the fact they play with it together. peacefully.

HOWEVER... i was noticing the gas pump and air pump on the front of the toy.  you know what?  my kids have NO idea what a gas pump is.  they are in the car when i get gas, but they never get out of their seat.  they haven't seen me open my gas tank, haven't seen me put in the gas nozzle, or actually pump gas.  they don't know what pumping gas sounds like, and they CERTAINLY don't know what putting air in the tires is!

thus, i'm not sure why that is a feature of the toy.  a gas pump?  what kid these days knows what that is.  unless you live on a farm and daddy (or granddaddy) has a pump for his tractors, a kid these days isn't likely gonna know what a gas pump is. 

how sad is that?  i'll have to make SURE kendal learns how to change a tire before he can drive a car.

old vs new and why DVD players are good.

since i've been picking on my husband lately (see the fast food menu blog), i thought i'd post another blog about something we disagree on. and that topic would be whether or not a DVD players should be installed in cars these days. so we bought a new car recently, and this car's purpose is for family trips for the next 8 to 10 years (or however long it lasts). our kids, right now, may not really be into movies and stuff, but in the next 2 years or so (save kendal and the wonderpets), watching movies will be great pacifiers for long, boring trips. and, i want to put a DVD player in our car. nathaniel feels differently. he says "we didn't have one when i was growing up and we'd travel from CA to IN every summer." suppose that'd be a long ways, maybe a 2 or 3 day trip? anyway, here is where i think his argument has a loophole. back in the 70s and 80s: #1, cars were bigger. there was room to move around. i remember traveling to buckroe beach with tuter and father and mom and me and melissa and aunt joy and amy and ramey and smitty and sandy (smitty's mama) and god knows who else. two of us could fit in the floor behind the driver seat (i remember playing cards with amy there). #2, we didn't have to wear seatbelts "back in the day" so, unlike kids (and adults) these days, we weren't strapped to our spot for hours on end. nathaniel, (jon, amy, or others that are probably going to argue with me here because you also traveled across country without a DVD player), could you imagine having to sit in ONE spot for LONG PERIODS OF time without being able to move around and stretch your legs? and not that a DVD player helps this, but it does distract from the numb-feet affect of... #3, back when we were little, we didn't have to sit in a car/booster seat until we were 12 or over 80 pounds. i'm sure my sister would agree that once a kid reaches a certain age, their feet start going numb when they can't fit them all in the seat with them (and there is nothing to rest them on). i remember the first time bubba got to that age/size. i was in the car that trip. it was a long trip. thank God for CARS (the disney movie) because it distracted him from his uncomfortableness. #4, not only do kids now have to sit in carseats in smaller cars, they can't even turn sideways to play a game like, eh, connect four. once they are in the booster seats, that shoulder strap still has to be across their shoulder. and like a youngin' in a infant seat, if you AREN'T BELTED IN PROPERLY, YOU CAN CAUSE MORE HARM THAN DONE if you are in an accident. so, wouldn't it be advantageous to encourage children to look forward and sit up and straight (rather than want to shift to the side or wiggle their arms out of the seat, etc.)? traveling isn't what it was 30 years ago when we were little. traveling is "compact" now (and faster). compact isn't comfortable. a DVD player helps distract from the uncomfort. i'm FOR getting a DVD player in the car. ASAP. now if i could only convince my old fashioned "i used to walk to school in the snow up hill both ways" husband to concur. even though i didn't know it snowed in S-CA.

our tree 2008

today i'm going to try and update my blog... i've missed several events that i intended to blog about, but time just ran away from me last week! first, last weekend (after thanksgiving), we put up our christmas tree. yes, it is fake. i'm not a fan of needles covering the floor nor watering a real tree. so, i like to go "all out" on a fake tree and not even buy one that looks real (i.e. a white tree). this will be the last year for this white tree to be upstairs and/or around our kids. 95% of the ornaments i have are glass, so they'll have to be put up for a while - which means we will probably get a new tree (this time it'll be green and come with the lights already on it) to be decorated with kid-made ornaments. the future tree will be called our "family tree." ...here is a video of kendal really digging the lights! (fyi, the EHHH sound he makes in the video is because i wouldn't give him the camera.)

why motherhood is like a fairytale

i saw this in the most recent parenting magazine and had to share... 1. your kids insist that their expensive new beds are too soft or too hard. however, your overcrowded bed is just right. 2. though they eat neon fruit leather by the yard, your children act like you want to poison them if you offer a real apple. 3. each night when you return home, several waist-high people greet you. one is sleepy and one is grumpy.

what dads are for...

this weekend, we went down to morehead to visit some of my old friends. we ended up having SUCH a great time that we stayed the whole weekend.

well these friends have a nice yard, with nice grass. at one point kendal got a little restless and his dad took him into the yard. i went inside, and when i came out, this is what i saw:



my first thought was "oh my god he's gonna get eaten up with bugs from sitting on the ground" but what was i supposed to say? well, i said nothing and ran and got tina's camera (since i forgot mine - thank you pregnant brain!)



kendal was having such a blast playing with the clover flowers. he had them stuck behind both ears, in his shirt,...



and between his toes!



it really was sweet watching him sit on the ground with his dad. i know for certain that i would have never done that (sit him on the ground sans towel or blanket), not that it is a bad thing to do. i just don't like to feel the grass. i don't even walk barefooted in the grass!



so i guess that is what dads are for. letting their children do things they would not get the chance to do with their mamas!