kikifitz

Oh look! I let another month go by without posting. I do come and read everyone's posts every couple of days but I just haven't had any interest in posting for a while.

I've been doing a lot of daycare. I've started watching Thomas and Daniel on Mondays and Fridays. I still have Henry and Lydia on Tuesdays but now Henry will start coming on Thursdays and some Fridays. I had Max and Delilah a few days last month too. I also watched Thomas and Daniel's 3 cousins one day.

Jack only has 3 weeks left of preschool! We went to Kindergarten Roundup last Thursday night. He was so excited he was talking a mile a minute on the way there. We met the teachers and toured the rooms and did some activities. He wanted to go back the next day :P

I think Keira only has 3 weeks left of ECFE too but I'm not sure. We missed her class last week because she was sick :/ I feel like the kids have been sick on and off for months. We've gone through ridiculous amounts of kleenex.

We had a fun Easter. The kids woke up and got to do an egg hunt. They found their baskets during the egg hunt and were pretty excited about them. We went to church and then to my mom's. We had a big brunch with the family and then another egg hunt. The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins.

We had planned on going to the MN zoo on Saturday but it was rainy so we scrapped that plan. We decided instead to get Keira a big girl bed and get rid of the toddler bed. Jared and our friend John went to get the mattress and box spring and I took the kids to get new bedding and a few other things. She definitely liked the princesses and Dora and Hello Kitty but she's not like in love with any of those so I nudged her toward some non-character bedding. She found a puppy/kitty set that she really likes and I really like that it's reversible and has just stripes on one side. It's really cute and she loves it. 

In the afternoon the kids and I made Pinkalicious cupcakes (1 of Keira's current favorite books) and then went for a walk to splash in puddles. It was finally kind of nice out so we played with bubbles in the driveway for a while.

Yesterday I cleaned a bunch and rearranged Jack's room. He has more space now that he decided he no longer wants his train table because he never plays with it. He said we can give it to Dylan.

I decided Jack can have a friend  party this year. His birthday is the end of June but I think we're going to hand out some invites to his preschool classmates on the last day of school. He wants a Batman themed birthday. I think that's kind of funny because he never watches Batman and has no Batman toys. I'm wondering if that's going to change.......

The kids will then have a joint family party the weekend before Keira's birthday. It's kind of lame that their birthdays aren't even a month apart. Plus Brooke and Dylan both have birthdays in May and Vera's birthday is the day after Keira's. Lots of birthdays close together! My sister's having a BBQ on Saturday to celebrate Erik's birthday, Nan's birthday and Mother's day. There are also 5 birthdays in May/June on Jared's side of the family although we don't usually get together for those.

Jared finally got a Droid so now we can play Words With Friends :P Now the kids don't have to fight over my phone :P

We are loving watching Game of Thrones! I started to get into Camelot but our free trial with Starz ended :( I like The Borgias too.

Yikes! It has been a while since I posted.
Let me see if I can remember what we've been up to the last few weeks.......

Our transmission went out in the Vue about 3 days after we did our taxes. We had planned on getting a 2nd car with
our tax return but that plan quickly went out the window.

We were without our car for about a week. Fortunately Jared was allowed to work from home all week and my
uncle John borrowed us one of his cars.

My niece Brooke was on spring break from the 25th to the 1st so we went to Pump It Up on Friday the 25th.
The kids had so much fun jumping around and sliding down the giant slides.

The Kraemer's ended up staying over Friday night.

Saturday we had Jared's fam over for his Mom's birthday. It was originally going to be at his mom's house
but we had no way to get there. We didn't borrow my uncle's car until Sunday night.

Tuesday I had Henry & Lydia like usual but Barb also brought Brooke over. She requested spending the night
at our house without her parents and Dylan. The kids had lots of fun!

Wednesday morning we went to the Shoreview Community Center. Amy & the kids met us there. They had lots of fun
climbing and sliding.

Later in the afternoon we met up with Barb and she took Jack and Brooke home for another slumber party.
Jack and Brooke were pretty excited to have 2 slumber parties in a row!

It was weird to have just Keira Wednesday night. We snuggled and watched Tangled. That's her new favorite movie.
Then we painted her nails and did some puzzles.

Thursday we met at Pump It Up again and Amy & the kids met us there. The place was pretty dead so that was awesome.
Keira actually went down the giant inflatable slides by herself this time!
Our car was done so we went and picked it up.

Friday I had just Henry. The kids had fun having Easter egg hunts.

Friday night we watched the Tourist. Terrible movie.

Saturday morning we just hung out and in the afternoon we went my cousin Alissa's son Alex's first birthday party.
The kids each got to bring home a cup and Keira picked a Tangled cup. She was SO excited about it :P

Saturday night my mom babysat for us so we could go out for our Anniversary. We went to Chili's and had fajitas. Then we came home and played cribbage with my mom for about 2 hours!

Sunday morning I went and cleaned my sister's house. After Keira's nap we went and returned my uncle's car and then came
home and played outside for a bit.

Yesterday was our actual Anniversary. Jack has been battling some diarrhea for a few days and yesterday morning we
had plans to go to the Macy's Flower Show with my mom and Amy & the kids. Since Jared was working from home I decided
to leave Jack home. The Flower Show was nice and it smelled so good! Then we met Erik for lunch.

Jack seemed to be doing better when we got home. Jared was working until 7 and then went and got us dinner and cheesecake!

This morning Jack's diarrhea is raging and he also threw up! I was supposed to have Henry & Lydia so I called and canceled.
Looks like he'll be missing preschool tonight :(

I got a regular daycare gig the other day! I have watched Thomas & Daniel on occasion but now I'm going to be watching
them Mondays and Fridays. I also got a call from their mom's sister and she's going to be bringing her 3 kids over next
Tuesday for a few hours. Maybe she'll want me to watch them regularly as well!

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be cleaning a rental unit for a girl I went to school with! They live out of state and have a new tenant
moving in and need the place cleaned now that the old tenant is out.

We've been busy busy busy and I have like 25 shows on the DVR I need to watch at some point. I attempted to watch some yesterday afternoon and that was a fiasco. I don't know why I attempt to watch my shows when the children are awake. It took me like 5 hours to get through 2 1/2 of my shows!

It's so nice to see all the snow melting and see some of the landscaping! We moved in here in January so we weren't
totally sure what the outside looked like.

I suppose I should get some laundry done :/




 

Last week we were on spring break so we didn't have Henry & Lydia on Tuesday, Jack didn't have preschool, Keira didn't have ECFE and we didn't have bible study. So we planned some fun outings! Jared took tuesday off and we went to the Children's Museum. It was really busy there even though we got there shortly after they opened. The kids had a lot of fun although I did have to yell at a woman. Her 3 kids were being little brats and I lost my patience with them. Keira was playing with the water boats and these kids came up and pretty much just took over. They kept budging in front of her and taking her boat and putting their boats in front of hers and just generally being dicks. I kept nicely telling them that she was next and they needed to wait their turns. They paid me no mind and just kept sending boats down. Finally I went down and snatched up a boat that one her bratty kids was about to grab and handed it to Keira and then pulled one her other kids' boats out and told him to wait his turn. The mother got all offended and called me rude! I said "No, they are rude! They keep budging in front of her, taking her boats, releasing her boats and putting their boats in front of hers. Do you mind if she has her turn that she has been patiently waiting for? Maybe you should actually watch your kids!" She said nothing and neither did the several other parents that were standing around.
So Keira got to finally send her boat down and then I said "lets go somewhere else now where kids actually know how to play nicely."
I was so angry at that woman I was shaking! She was standing there the whole time and didn't care that her kids were being ogres and taking over the whole area and trampling over a little 2 1/2 year old!

I really really can't stand people that take their kids places and then don't watch them. I saw far too many women there with several kids. DO NOT bring more children than you can watch and for the love of pete WATCH THEM!!! And if they're being dicks SAY SOMETHING TO THEM!!!! I don't like to go places like that with just my 2 kids! I know it's hard to watch them both so I like to have my mom come or have Jared take the day off. I cant believe it when I see someone with 5-6 kids. How can you possibly watch all of them???

Wednesday morning my mom picked us up and we met Amy, Simon and Vera at the YMCA. The kids had so much fun playing in the water. We really need to go more often. We showered up and came back to my house for lunch. Then Keira napped and the boys played for a few hours.

Thursday morning we met Amy, Simon and Vera at Como Zoo & Conservatory. We started out in the Conservatory looking at plants and flowers. Then we saw a few animals, had lunch and then saw a few more. We were there for like 5 hours! I couldn't believe the kids didn't turn into little monsters. Then they didn't even fall asleep on the way home!

We ended up having my mom babysit Thursday night and we went out for a bit. I think it was the first time we've gone out in like 5 months!

Friday we just hung out at home. I made my mom's birthday cake. My first German Chocolate cake.

Saturday was my mom's birthday. I cleaned for Nan a bit in the morning and then came home and got ready. We picked up my mom and met Amy, Erik, Simon & Vera at the Eastman Nature Center for their Maple Syrup Festival. It was pretty cool. We learned how maple syrup is made and got to observe the process and then try some and it was pretty damn tasty! Then we played for a bit and the kids did an obstacle course. We went to Amy & Erik's house after for dinner. Nan, Pop, Cathy, Rob, Brooke and Dylan came for dinner. We ate and hung out for a bit and then came home. Rob and the kids came over too for a slumber party.

Yesterday morning we had a big breakfast and then the Kraemer's had to head out. I did some shopping and then took the kids to the Oneka Open Gym time. We played there for 2 hours. Running and jumping in the bounce house and riding trikes and sliding and more! They slept for 12 hours last night :P There was a lady there though that kind of pissed me off. She wasn't watching her kids at all and her oldest kept crashing into us with his trike. She totally saw it a few times too and didn't do anything.

Today I need to thoroughly clean the house and paint mine and Keira's nails. I really wanted to do mine last night but I decided to wait since I have so much cleaning to do today. I LOVE my new nail polish. Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure is the best nail polish I have ever used! I really does dry fast and it lasts for like 4-5 days before I see any major chips!

I got Wine Not for Christmas and then just the other day bought Plum Luck. I had Plum Luck on and Keira said she wanted her nails done too. I did them Wednesday morning before we went swimming and I only did one coat. The chlorine in the pool took a lot of it off. That afternoon though I re-did them and put 2 coats and it has been on ever since. It's definitely chipping a lot so we need to redo them today.
I want more colors! I looked at CVS yesterday but they're charging like $8 for them! Walmart has them for like $5 so I'll wait until the next time I'm there.

So Keira is finally over her diarrhea and back in undies. She's been on track now for a few days and even wakes up dry so we let her sleep in undies last night! She usually sleeps in undies for naps but we were holding off on bedtime. She has been waking up dry for a while now so we decided to give it a try.

I ordered an extended battery for my phone. It should be here early this week. I have to charge my phone every night and I don't even use it that much! I've read a few articles about ways to minimize battery usage but still......I really would like it to hold a charge for more than a day. My last phone would last a week. Obviously that was different because I didn't have internet and games on it. It's pretty annoying how many apps seem to just up and run on there own without my starting them out. I can't seem to find anyway to stop that other than to uninstall them.

Time to get crackin! My sister and the kids are coming over now so it looks like I'm not going to get as much cleaning done as I had planned. Oh well :)

My mom and grandparents are finally home from California.
Pops is doing well. Hopefully we'll have a chance to spend some time chatting with my mom today.
Their flight came in about 12:30am yesterday morning.

Keira is still battling the diarrhea :/
I finally called the pediatrician yesterday to make sure we shouldn't be concerned.

She has been on the BRAT diet. We started it on like Wednesday and she was doing
good for like 2 days. Then Friday night she had a normal dinner and Saturday morning Jared gave her OJ.
That sent her right back to square one.
So now she's back to just bananas, rice, applesauce and toast.

The nurse I talked to said not to be concerned since she is otherwise acting normal
and not complaining of abdominal pain. She's been drinking a lot of gatorade
and is definitely not dehydrated. She said sometimes it can last 2 weeks so
keep on with the BRAT diet and also include yogurt.

Yesterday was the first time the kids have left the house all week! We went to the library for a bit.
I've only left briefly on 2 occasions. Jack skipped preschool this week due to still recovering.
Keira was still recovering and we had no vehicle on Wednesday so we skipped ECFE.
Jared was unable to work from home on Thursday so we skipped ECFE. I didn't really want to take
Keira anywhere this week anyway until she was back to normal.

I got my new phone on Wednesday and it's AWESOME!!!!!
I got a Droid Incredible.
The kids love it too of course. I've downloaded a few games that they really like to play.
Jared likes Angry Birds. I'm pretty sure he's going to end up getting the same phone
once his contract is up :P

If you have any favorite apps for Droid feel free to suggest them :)

Keira has also gotten remarkably good at using our laptop!
She loves to play her "letters game" on the Starfall website.
I can't believe how good she is with the mouse!

Jack is getting very good at tying his own shoes!!
He can't quite do it himself yet but he's close.

We are going to have some ridiculously awesome weather later this week. 40's & 50's!!!

Jared's making pancakes and bacon so I'm outta here :)

The weekend ended with a bang that's for sure.
We were originally supposed to have a bunch of people over and welcome home my mom and Nan & Pop Sunday night.
Plans changed when we found out about the stroke and that they wouldn't be coming home for a while.
We ended up with a plan of just my sister & fam & my aunt coming over for dinner.

I cleaned my sister's house Sunday morning and then came home and relaxed for a bit.
She called to say she wasn't feeling so great and that they wouldn't be coming.
I called my aunt and she said she wasn't feeling so great either and she wouldn't be coming.
So we had tacos and the night proceeded as usual.
Keira had been having diarrhea pretty much all day Sunday.
We put the kids to bed and about 2 hours later Jack threw up all over his bed.

Right around this time I started to feel really full and bloated and sickly.
Jack continued to throw up about every 20 minutes and then the diarrhea started for him.
I tried putting him to bed in my bed since his bed was stripped and the mattress was wet from being cleaned.
He kept throwing up so I eventually moved him to the living room so we could keep an eye on him.
I was feeling pretty ill but having trouble keeping my eyes open. Jared told me to go to bed.

I laid down for a bit but felt too sick to sleep.
Finally around midnight it started for me.
I think I was in the bathroom for about an hour.
Alternating between puking and diarrhea.
Then over the next couple of hours I would try and go lie down but just felt sick and laid there waiting for sleep.
Every time I felt like I was about to get some sleep I had to run back to the bathroom.
Longest. Night. Ever.

Keira was not having a good night either. She kept waking up crying. I imagine her stomach hurt.
At one point I went in and she had diarrhea'd in her pull-up. I had to pass it off to Jared and then go
puke in the kitchen sink.

Jared said Jack puked and diarrhea'd on and off all night and finally kept some water down and got to sleep around 6 am.
Yesterday we all spent a lot of time in the bathroom and groaned about our aches and pains.
Jack and I napped on and off throughout the day.
Keira seemed to be feeling fine aside from still having diarrhea.

I took a bath last night with epsom salt and baking soda and that seemed to help my aches and fever a bit.
Jared was getting worse as the night went on and both kids were feeling much better last night.
They were running around and playing and eating a bit.
We tried hard to get them to drink pedialyte but they were resisting.
Last night Jack had a diarrhea incident in his undies at some point that Jared dealt with.
Keira had 2 diarrhea incidents during the night and 1 bright and early this morning that I dealt with.

I really hope we can get her back in undies at some point today.
I feel quite a bit better today but still a little weak and I have a nagging headache.
I can't believe Jared felt well enough to go to work today!

I won't be sending Jack to preschool tonight.
I was supposed to have Henry today and tomorrow but that's not happening.

I can't believe how many times I used the word diarrhea in this post.
Also.....don't think we'll be having tacos again any time soon. Blech!

It has not been a great weekend.
Friday night my grandpa had a stroke.
He and my grandma and my mom are all in California and were supposed to fly home today.
He's in the hospital and they've been doing tests and we're still waiting to hear if he has a blockage.
He's doing well though and we're all hoping they'll all be able to come home later this week.
Still.....if you're the praying type....I wouldn't mind some prayers sent his way.

Last night at about 11 Keira puked all over herself and her bed :/
She and Jack have both had a runny nose for a few days but that's it.
She gets to coughing at night and I think that's why she threw up.
So all her bedding and pillows had to be washed and Jared gave her bath.
She finally got back to sleep at almost midnight.

Then this morning she had a disgusting poop accident in her undies and got another bath.
Fun times.

Yesterday morning the kids and I went to BSF. Then we came home and Max & Delilah came over.
The kids had SO much fun playing together! We really need to have them over more often.

While the girls napped I made 3 pans of lasagna. 1 for dinner, 1 for Warren and 1 for the freezer.

Leah picked the kids up at about 4:15 and then at 5 I went to Jack's conferences.
His teacher basically said he's awesome and will do great in kindergarten.
It certainly never gets old hearing how awesome he is and what a great job we're doing.

Today I have Thomas (3) and Daniel (5 months) and it's going great!
Daniel is a piece of cake to watch and the other 3 have playing nicely all morning!
We even got a chance to finger paint while Daniel took his morning nap.

Keira napped in undies yesterday!
I thought about letting her go to bed in undies but I think we should hold off on that for a bit.
She always wakes up dry but ya just never know.
She usually wakes me once during the night to go pee and then ends up in bed with me.
It's been around 6am actually so technically morning but we do go back to sleep afterward.
The last thing I want is for her to pee in her undies in my bed.

Jack is all of a sudden over Bubble Guppies, Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Clifford, and pretty much all his old favorites.
He'll watch Wubbzy but other than that he only wants to watch Scooby and has been asking to check out some new shows like
Spider Man, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Batman and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Jack and his new Slinky Dog have been inseparable. He REALLY loves that new dog :)

Today Keira's ECFE class met at Como Zoo. Normally I would take my mom's car and she would watch Jack but she is in California so Jared took the day off so he and Jack could come with.
It was pretty fun! We started out in the tropical area and checked out turtles, fish, snakes a tarantula and for the first time ever that I can remember.......the sloth was awake! She's ALWAYS sleeping but today she was awake and munching on some lettuce!
It was pretty cool. Then we had some circle time and heard a story and then headed over to the monkey building.
The gorillas were being so wacky! I've never seen them so silly. The one was right up by the glass and playing with a
pile of hay. He was throwing it up in the air, burying his head in it, doing handstands, pounding on his chest,  laying on his back scratching his belly and picking his nose and eating it. At one point he put his hand on the glass and then so did I. Then he made a kiss face and so did I.
Then he banged on the glass and that scared Keira and made her cry :P

Then we went back to the main building to have snack and say goodbye.
We met back up with Jared and Jack. In the hour we spent with her class they had pretty much toured the whole zoo.
I wish we could have seen more animals but we needed to go have lunch and then we were off to Toys 'R Us so Jack could
finally spend all the money he's been earning on a Slinky Dog. Keira ended up getting a big Jessie. They've been having lots of
fun with their new toys. I don't think Jack has stopped smiling since!

I took a nice 2 hour long nap this afternoon =)

Keira hasn't had an accident in like a week! She wakes during the night and wakes me up if she has to pee so
I'm happy to say we'll be done with pull-ups soon!

Tomorrow morning we have BSF and then in the afternoon I'm watching Max and Delilah. Jack is pretty excited to play with Max.

Friday I'm watching Thomas and Daniel again.

We're having a little shindig on Sunday. My mom and grandparents comes home from California in the afternoon so we're having a bunch of family over for dinner. My mom has been gone almost 2 weeks and it feels like a month!

Saturday morning I'll be going over to clean her house and then Sunday morning I'll be cleaning my sister's house.

Jared is not allowed to pick out movies ever again.
Last night we watched Machete.
Worst. Movie. Ever!
I can't believe I watched the whole stupid thing.
Jared didn't even watch the whole thing! He fell asleep for the end.

Keira is officially potty trained!!! She's been in underwear all week and I'm SO proud of her!
She even woke me up at 4:45 this morning because she had to go potty!!
Yesterday we ran errands (Walmart, Cub) and were out and about for like 2 1/2 hours with her in undies!
Hooray!!! She still wears pull-ups at nap time and bedtime but other than we're done with them.
Hallelujah!

We started getting the Sunday paper delivered a week ago and last week the paper was not all in the bag.
Today it wasn't even delivered. Awesome service Star Tribune!

I'm thinking about signing Jack up for t-ball this summer.
I asked him if he wanted to play t-ball or soccer and he said t-ball.
That's good because the only soccer program I found was like a year long and pretty expensive.
At his age I don't think he should be committing to anything for a year!

Keira's ECFE is meeting at Como Zoo this week! Jared took the day off so that he could take Jack too and we could meet up after her class is over. My mom's in California and I usually use her car and she watches Jack while we go to ECFE so this will work out perfect.

Keira has been doing awesome today!! No accidents so far.
I put off putting her down for her nap because she kept running to the bathroom saying she had to poop but then she wouldn't go.
I had a feeling she might be holding it in so I told her if she pooped on the potty she could lay on the couch with Jack
and watch a movie. That usually means they'll both fall asleep.
She finally went so that's what they're doing now.
I'm glad we didn't have ECFE today and I'm thinking about skipping BSF tomorrow.
I just really want to spend this week focusing on getting her potty trained.

Yesterday was kind of a fiasco. She only had 1 pee accident but she pooped in her undies twice.
It wasn't as solid as I would have liked either time so that sucked.

I spent some time on her baby book today. I wasn't nearly as behind on Jack's as I thought I was so that's cool.
I spent some time labeling some photos in albums yesterday.
It's SO nice to get some of that stuff done after neglecting it for so long.

Lately I have been more on top of meal planning and trying to have more variety in our foods.
I think it's really starting to pay off as far as the kids accepting that what is made for dinner is their only choice.
They're actually starting to eat better.
Hallelujah!!

I should be doing some cleaning but I said screw that and I'm relaxing and watching some of my shows.
I already got the chicken cooked and cut up for enchiladas tonight and the kids and I made jello for dessert :)
They knew jello with cool whip was for dessert last night so they ate their meatloaf remarkably well!