Poop Happened

After plethora of potty prizes and praise, poop happened. Way to go, Corbin! You can do it! 

 

Stay Puft

I just discovered Corbin playing quietly in his room.
And by "playing quietly", I mean I found my little glutton hiding in the corner after eating 3/4 of a box of Cocoa Puffs in one sitting.

Playing with him now just feels like a booby trap. I mean, that's a lot of Cocoa Puffs!

He is currently running around, giggling, and showing off his bloated belly. It's hysterical, and I am literally afraid to squeeze or poke him. If I wrestle him too much, he'll blow, and I'll be sorry.

Alas, he is going to explode eventually and it won't be pretty.

in other news...
Happy Valentine's Day, Aaron!
I move we save ourselves from our little ticking time bomb of a son and go for Plan B: Operation Get-A-Sitter-Tonight and give her a really big tip.

Update: well, we didn't escape fast enough. 4:56 pm (so close!) take cover, folks. It's a bad one.

Things I Survived

I threw my back out yesterday. I've narrowed the cause down to either wrestling with Corbin or lifting the freezer by myself to level it. Either way, It hurts like nothing I've ever experienced, and I spent my day changing ice packs and hittin' the ibuprofen.

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We took a small outing to the library, this morning. Corbin's behavior there could be compared to that of a fire breathing dragon in a ...well a library still works for this comparison. The good news is that I scored 2 movies (Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life to add to our Christmas movie collection) and 3 hard cover books (The Secret, The Glass Castle, The Thirteenth Tale) for $8 total from the For Sale section in the back. Hopefully, it will take me a month or two to get through them, because it's going to be as long before we are welcomed back into the library with a smile from the ladies behind the counter.

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During naptime today, Quincy wandered out and said, "Mom, there's poop in my room."
Me: Poop? In your room? Why? Hey. You've got chocolate on your face..."

Wait.
Noooo.

I went back to her bedroom.

no.
No.
NOOOOO.

It was like a minefield.
I don't even know how she did it, I really don't. More than anything, though, I wish she hadn't tried to clean it up herself.

With ALL of the clothes from the dirty hamper.

and her bedding.
and the curtains.
and Reese's bedding.
and all of the stuffed animals from Reese's bed.

No surface was left untouched.
Is I scrubbed (which my back did not appreciate) and started a 2nd load of laundry (this is not including the pieces I simply threw away because there was just no coming back from the devastation), I looked around and seriously considered just closing the door and boarding that bedroom up.

Why, Quincy? Whyyyyyyyyy???!!!!

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We fed the sister missionaries dinner the other night. As soon as they entered the kitchen, the girls ran up to them and announced, "Guess what?! We have a rat in our kitchen!" Nice.

Stay Classy San Diego.

I Chose My Love and I Love My Choice

For the past few years, I have been saving.
About a year and a half ago, I really started saving.
Cash.
In an envelope. Stashed.


I wanted to surprise Aaron on our 10th Wedding Anniversary with a vacation fund. I know you probably think it is totally lame and unsentimental to give my husband CASH for our Anniversary, but it isn't like that, at all.


It's an act of love, as all $2915 that I have saved, so far, has not come out of a paycheck.
It isn't money that I just moved from one bank account to another and it isn't from my preschool, either. It is cash I have saved from babysitting, our summer garage sale, birthday money, etc.

{See that, HolleeAnn? "never underestimate the power of small change. Cha-ching!" hahaha}

It is one thing to have money in your account. But that money has been spoken for.
Budgeted for living expenses, college funds, retirement, food, new car, whatever. We have a vacation fund. This will just be like icing on the cake and mean we can do extra fun things on that vacation.

"This is found money, Jerry!" -George Costanza

I also had a plan that the money that I end up saving by using cloth diapers would be deposited monthly and added to this little fund. Cuz that way, when Aaron asked 'where all the cash came from', I could honestly tell him 'it is a reward for all the $#!t I have had to deal with!'


So yeah, I have a money stash.
I also realize that this makes me sound a little bit like a granny-with-getaway-cash-under-her-mattress, but whatever.

I wanted it to be a surprise, and if it went into the bank, it wouldn't be.

And weird, tacky, unsentimental, lame, crazy, or not...wouldn't YOU love for someone to give you $1000?

I thought so.

Unfortunately, 5 months early, my Big Secret came cRaShInG dOwN last night, when I was foolishly adding some money from babysitting yesterday to the stash while Aaron was home.

(Do you see where this is going?)

Since I knew I was getting close to my $3000 goal, I (again, foolishly) decided to count it.

(Don't do it, Meg! Don't count the money!)

There I was, counting out the bills, like a little kid does when she is saving up for a new toy, when in walks Aaron.

And I am standing there with an armfull of money.

I think he thought I was planning to run away, or something.

BUSTED.

Happy Anniversary, My Love.

He loves my unsentimental, lame, thrifty, crazy-paranoid-granny of a gift, and we looked at a map and, like we often do, we started talking about where we are going to go on our Big Trip.
And more than the actual gift, he was surprised by my ability to keep it a secret for so long.


He decided it wasn't fair for him to be the only one receiving an early present, and told me he bought tickets for us to go see this, on Saturday!


I LOVE this musical. Can't wait! I hope the roads are clear enough by Saturday to get to Fayetteville!
Happy (Early) Anniversary to him.
Happy (Early) Valentine's Day to me.

Cloth Diapering Day #1/60

Whoa! Baby got BACK!

How HUGE is that diaper booty? It's like a regular diaper that's been in a swimming pool and is now swollen to maximum capacity.

It's still pretty cute.

Here he is practicing his Heisman.

Impossible to get a still photo.

That face is so naughty, it kills me.

This kid is soooo cute.

All the time.

Even more so in his rocket ship diaper.

I can do this for 60 days.
I can do this for 60 days.

Cuz after 60 days...it's money in my pocket.

Be Grateful for the Lemons

Corbin and Quincy both had ear infections (act surprised, y'all).
Corbin's antibiotic (read: chalk flavored liquid that he spits out on the floor) gives him the kind of diarrhea that can't be contained in a diaper.

It's swell.
So today, I am grateful for this stuff

Without it, things could have been much worse.

Dancing in September

This guy

is walking!

He took his time. But one day, I played this song:
and he stood up, shook his booty, then took four steps.
He's everywhere, now...and we love it. Way to go, Corbin!

So if you've read the previous posts, you know that the end of this week turned sour pretty quickly. After an attack of Montezuma's Revenge (minus the exotic vacation) hit this afternoon (because we needed some icing on our poop cake of a weekend), Aaron took the kids for a drive and I went to bed for awhile. I woke up to the symphony of noises that were indicative that my family was home. Girls fighting, girls playing, girls fighting again, Quincy's contagious cackle, football, Corbin opening and closing cupboard doors, little feet running up and down the hallway and around the circle formed by our living room, kitchen, and dining area, clanking on the piano, requests for water, a snack, etc. Aaron teaching the girls to say "throw me the ball" in Spanish, Quincy making up her own version of spainsh -a funny combination of sounds then ending in "poop"- then both girls laughing until they fall over, Reese cheering for Corbin as he walks to her, etc.

This weekend was a counter productive one as far as all the things on my "list" are concerned.
But I just have so much to be grateful for that I think I'd be wrong to acknowledge all of the negative things that happened without giving recognition to some of the good, the first being my awesome family. My kids are great. I love them so much. Tonight, before bed, we played a Toy Story version of Yahtzee while talking like pirates. In that little 15 minutes of attention that I gave my kids, I felt better than any medicine, hot soup, nap, break, run, or vacation from the craziness, could have done.

I don't think that my idea to "think positively" was a bad one, but I was pissed when it didn't work to fix the hex of lousiness that had taken over our house. I've decided to embrace the crazy happenings and move on. I can't fix the plumbing, rewrite my paper, un-sick Quincy's ears, clean the garage, finish hanging the shelves, clean the blue (yes, blue. This time, a cocktail of face paint crayons and washable marker) stain from the new carpet, help with homework, apply for graduation, finish the book I'm reading, give Q a haircut, deal with a denied insurance claim, nurture my children, or do all of the other things that pull for my attention all in one day. So I'll do them one at a time, do what's most important first, and the rest doesn't matter.

Hopefully, by next weekend, things will start running a little more smoothly around here.

I'm grateful for the healing power of my family. Kisses from my daughters, words of encouragement from my husband, and the warmth of tiny, chubby, sticky lil' baby arms that wrap around my neck and tangle in my hair are the best fix for a broken day.

A Day in the Life

6:40 wake up to Corbin crying, realize we've overslept, run around house frantically trying to get Reese ready for school

6:47 take Corbin out of his crib so he'll stop screaming every time we pass his room and don't rescue him from baby jail. Put him on the floor in front of some toys

6:48 rush outside and get Reese on school bus, just in time. She is half awake, but she's dressed and has breakfast in her hands.

6:50 Carry shoeless Quincy back in the house and make breakfast

7:00 I smell something...

7:00:01 Follow the trail to one baby wearing a diaper that has exploded. Realize he must not have been changed into a fresh diaper before bed, and I didn't change him right when he woke up, so now the poo is creeping up the back of what used to be a white onesie.

7:01 pick up gross baby. Check carpet for signs of damage. Dry heave. Attempt to change diaper. Dry heave. Give up on the diaper change idea and put fully clothed baby into bathtub.

7:05 Hose baby off. Remove wet (ruined) clothing. Watch in horror as a dollop of poo slides out of clothing and into bath water.

7:05:01 Freak out.

7:05:02 Baby fills plastic cup with bathwater and drinks it.

7:05:03 Look to the sky and say, "Seriously?!"

7:06 Empty tub. clean tub. Clean baby again. Think about calling Mom.

7:10 throw away baby's clothes. Throw away my clothes.

7:15 step on a few of these
in the hallway, and think, "hmmm..."

7:16 Follow trail to master bathroom, to find that the remainder of the box has been poured into the toilet, where they expanded and solidified the contents of the toilet bowl.

7:17 "is that.....?" Yes. Yes it is. Toilet had been used, and there's a dookie suspended in the bowl like a pineapple ring in a jello-mold.

7:17:01 flush toilet. Immediately regret decision.

7:18 unclog toilet, clean toilet. Cry. Laugh. Curse whoever didn't flush.

7:25 toilet is clean, but water level still won't return to normal. Put the lid down and just walk away, grateful that there are two toilets in the house.

8:30 Q gets dropped off at school

9:00-10:30 P90X and Hip Hop Abs with Darcie. Laugh at how weak I am, sample Pumpkin flavored Hersheys (what the awesome?!), discover that Corbin has pooped AGAIN, diaper breaks and he crawls away while I'm changing him, but secretly, I am glad because the workout gets paused and I need a breather or I'll never survive the "Superman/Banana" segment.

10:30 come home to a driveway blocked by several tractors, backhoes, caterpillars, and other large monstrous trucks scattered across my driveway and lawn.

10:35 guys move trucks, I pull into the driveway, and then get blocked back in!

10:40 "uggg, sorry guys, but I'm leaving again in like half an hour".
guys: "we'll move when you come back out"
me: I think you should move 10 minutes before I come back out, so I don't have to wait for you.
guys: no problem. Sorry about the hole in your lawn.

what?
10:41 discover 4 x 4 x 6 ft HOLE in the lawn, and mountain of dirt next to it, then notice that the whole front of my yard is under 6 inches of water. (they are burying cables).

10:42 try not to be irritated. Buried cable = less snapped power lines in an ice storm.
And it's not like I have a super nice front yard.
But, but...it's still MY yard, and there are crepe myrtle branches broken off and there are people smoking in my yard, and there are trucks everywhere and really...it's a big giant muddy mess
I give up on any hope of still throwing together a garage sale by tomorrow. Besides, where would they park? You can't even get down my street, and everything is covered in mud.

11:00 shower, think about how pissed creepy keith is going to be when they tear up HIS yard. bwahahahaha

11:10 get out of shower, get dressed, and THEN realize that I still have NO BLINDS in my front window. I took the old one's down when I painted my bedroom a few weeks ago, and I haven't installed a new set. Normally, this doesn't matter, because the window is neck high, but today...well today there are a few guys on trucks on my lawn like 15 feet away.
Yeah. Them. They probably saw me naked.

11:30 pick up Quincy

12:00 Q naps, Corbin just cries in his bed for a really long time. I go in there and pick him up for a snuggle.
wait...he is still clothed, but where is his diaper? His onesie is still snapped closed, how the heck did he get the diaper off?
I finally find it shoved between the crib and the wall. Good thing I used a high quality, scrub-worthy paint on Corbin's room.
Laugh, cry, call my mom.

1:00-3:00
With both Corbin and Quincy asleep I sit down and get my paper on Kingship in Ancient Israel written. It's a beast, and I haven't spent this much time with my nose in the Old Testament in awhile. In the end I feel like I have a very well written paper. This is the assignment that was due the week I missed class, so I am excited to finally hand it in tonight and be totally caught up.

3:15 Reese comes home, Quincy and Corbin wake up

4:00
5:00 Dinner: last minute cilantro lime rice, black beans, and salad that turns out SO YUMMY.
5:15 Kids refuse to eat the rice because there are "leaves and yucky stuff in it".
I cave and feed them corn dogs.

6:15-8:45 World Civ. Which I am looking forward to because
a) there is no poop there
2) tonight was "meet the pres of NWACC night and Dr. T is bringing pizza to class.
d) I've texted a couple of night owl gal pals to see if anyone wants to meet up for a late movie after class.

I excitedly hand in my essay.
Unexcitedly listen as Dr. T returns everyone else's marked up essays accompanied by a "most of you failed this essay, but there were a few C's" discussion.

Uh oh.

He goes on to state that if we have failed, he has failed, and that's a problem. This week's assignment is to re-write the kingship essay according to his edits and critiques.
I can't very well do that without him grading it first. But knowing that this essay isn't exactly my best work, (I did throw it together in two hours) I just ask for it back. He says he'd love to grade it first, and will email it back to me, so I can more successfully do this week's rewrite.

So now I am waiting on that, which is no fun, because who likes to wait around for criticism? I know I should expect it, because it is an assignment and all, but I realized tonight from the looks on my classmate's faces, and reading a few of the comments left on their papers, that I was sorely mistaken when I assumed that this course would be an "easy A".

The lecture was about Confucianism, Daoism, and how bad energy attracts more bad energy.
Uh, looking at my day, I'm thinking that's pretty accurate.

My night owl gals were both unavailable for a movie,.
I head over to my friend, Katie's and hold her sweet 3 day old baby for a little while.
She is totally perfect, and how an any day that ends with holding a newborn turn out to be that bad?

I head home determined to channel up some of that elusive positive energy.

I came home to a sleeping family, and an entire pan of goodies in my kitchen. Like, a whole pan. Brownies, candy bars, pound cake, etc. (good thing I did two workouts today!) and a nice little note from my friend. Little things can make such a big difference.

Today:
The girls woke up at 4:30am because one of them needed to go potty, then Quincy went crazy and wouldn't let anyone go back to sleep. I told them if they stayed in their bedroom until 5am, they could have brownies for breakfast. They thought was Christmas.
Corbin has emptied the trash once, and knocked a full glass of water off the counter. But he's taken his diaper of and covered himself and his crib in poop only once, today.

Of course, it's only 10am...
but those are just little things, and I'm thinking positively.

?

Me: Reese, that's a great dog.
Reese: Thanks. Those are his spots.
Quincy: I'm drawing a poop!

Change of Plans

Mother nature is against us.
We left Saturday morning for OKC.
2 hrs later, we hit the blizzard that swept across Oklahoma and Arkansas, and after sliding on the road twice (in new tires) we had to turn around and come back.
Aaron was pretty disappointed.

We did enjoy our time alone with this little guy, though.
We had dinner and watched the NIU game at Gusanos then went to Chili's for Paradise pie, and watched BYU [forget how to play basketball] from the comfort of our own home while 8 inches of snow fell outside.

Church was canceled Sunday (yup!), since most people couldn't get out of their driveways in the snow, so we slept in, and enjoyed having a quiet house to ourselves.

Kasey and Jimmie brought our girlies home to us in their Jeep, and they brought dinner too! Excellent! I had my first corned beef and cabbage experience, and managed to pound 1/2 of a dark chocolate cake (over the course of 2 days, but yup, 1/2 a cake...totally worth it. I shared a little...unwillingly). Verdict? Corned beef=GOOD. Cabbage=not my favorite. Carrots and Potatoes=GOOD.

You KNOW you have good friends when they still take your children overnight even when the kids are sick and they know the chances of anyone sleeping are pretty low. But Kasey assured us the girls could handle watching movies in their jammies from her house just as well as they would from ours. She gave them meds round the clock and handled 3am nebulizer treatments like a champ. We soaked up a little more of this guy, and did NOT wake up at 3am.

Yummy baby.

Thanks, K! What would I do without her? Definitely not eat good pizza, a "big salad", and Paradise Pie snuggled up in a snowstorm with my boys, this weekend. From girls night out, to bathroom remodels, to bed rest, that girl has ALWAYS been there for me. I feel blessed to have such selfless friends, and am totally inspired to try harder to recognize when I can help others the way that she has helped me so many times. The weekend was just lovely.

Good news: because our cancellation was due to inclement weather, the hotel gave us a refund, and Tia and Jared were rockstars and sold our tickets for a good percentage of their original cost, so we aren't at a huge loss there, either.

Bad news: it's probably a good thing we didn't stay in OKC, because by Sunday afternoon, Reese Quincy and I all had pretty high fevers.

We went to the Dr. today and (drumroll please.....)

BOTH girls have double ear infections!
No surprises there! They've also got a croupy cough from some virus that has almost run it's full course. We got a prescription cough syrup for that, and hopefully, with the antibiotics everyone will be fever free and feeling better soon!

My appointment was slightly less successful. They aren't really sure what is wrong with me, but with Tylenol, my fever was still 104.1* at the doctor's office.

I walked in, they looked at me, and made me wear a mask! Sad, right? I got paranoid looks from everyone that walked in and I felt like a leper. Worse, I started coughing (the kind of coughing where you just cross your legs and pray) and they gave me ANOTHER mask and told me that "these new masks they just bought are kind of thin, so I should double up".

Great. Now I'm not only a leper, I'm the reject leper.

I got the nice nurse.
She brought me a warm blanket and said, "I hurt just looking at you".
Thanks, nurse.

Then she gave me the most painful shot of antibiotics I've EVER received, right in the butt... but I'm pretty sure was stabbing me with a dagger of some sort when I wasn't looking. It took ever a minute, which doesn't sound like a long time, but relative to the "quick like a band-aid" shots I am used to...it was an eternity of pain.
Then again, I was probably more aware of how long it took because her hand was on my butt.

Doc gave me Rx's for two more antibiotics and some Darvocett. I mentioned that Darvocett knocks me out and he said, "Good. Take the Darvocett and go to bed."

HAHA.
Wouldn't that be awesome if Mothers could just "go to bed" and sleep off their illnesses?

He sent me home with a cute note excusing Aaron from 3 days of work so he can stay home and care for the kids while I rest up.

I got home and went to bed.
I woke up 10 minutes later. sort of. I was conscious enough to hear what was happening, but not awake enough to get up.

The Cox Guy was here to fix the internet.
Corbin was crying.
Quincy was crying.
Reese was crying.
The tub was running.
Quincy had pooped in the front yard. (FOR REAL.)
Aaron was dealing with the Cox guy (a real winner, I might add) and carrying a poopy baby around.
Reese was attempting to bathe Quincy, because she was disgusted at the sight of Quincy's runs, she couldn't take it anymore and demanded that Q get in the tub.... but the faucet had become stuck on Hot and she was scalding her screaming sister.

My fever had broken and I was soaking wet with sweat and I could hear everything happening around me, but was too sick to get up.
Am I the only mom out there that finds it hard to "take it easy" or "rest up" when stuff like this is happening down the hall?

Reese ran outside to tell Aaron about the water, but fell on the concrete and scraped up her arm.
More crying.
The Cox guy left.
Aaron bathed Q, mended Reese, changed Corbin, and gave them all their meds.
Corbin went to bed and the girls and Aaron went to Walmart for prescriptions, popcorn chicken (that's how we roll), new princess toothbrushes, Dora toothpaste, glittery obnoxious Princess Tiana t-shirts that I never would have purchased, chicken noodle soup, and pink roses (for "mom 'cuz her butt got shot").

I slept.

I had to cancel preschool tomorrow.
I missed the "Flintstone Olympics" Activity I've been planning for 2 weeks.
I have no idea what we're going to do tomorrow.
I'm pretty sure it involves a fort, movies, and comfort food.
I HATE not being able to take care of my children.
I HATE not being able to take care of myself.
I want my mom.

Not quite what we had planned for spring break!
Luckily, we all have drugs now, and we will all (hopefully) feel better VERY soon.
or at least well enough to go out and clean Quincy's poop off the front lawn.

stay classy, San Diego.

Smart @$$

So I thought I was pretty awesome making the cake pops for the girls to hand out as valentines at their class parties.

Then Reese comes home with these: (yes. all of them)
Who cares about homemade treats when some kid is handing out 3 pose-able Shrek dolls to each kid? She's never even SEEN Shrek, but she absolutely loves these toys, and is particularly fond of Donkey. Later that afternoon, the following conversation took place.

Reese: Mom, this donkey STINKS.
Me: what do you mean, 'it stinks'?
Reese: well...right here, under his tail... it sort of smells like after I poop a really smelly poop, the way the bathroom is still stinky even after I flush...Donkey smells like that. Like a butt. {giggles}

What I'm thinking: So....Donkey smells like an ass. How appropriate.

[enter Mommy censor now]

What I say: (I know, for once, it's not the same thing): Hmm. That's interesting. It's brand new, (we took it out of the plastic) It's probably a smell from the factory because it is a new toy. New cars sometimes smell funny too.

[wow. that went well. If only my censor operated more often]

Reese: But then how come only the DONKEY smells like that? It's like a dirty toilet.

[SERIOUSLY universe. Throw me a bone here!]

Me: I don't know Reese. Stop sniffing under his tail...that's kind of gross. Why don't you go clean the donkey or something?

Reese: Oh, Yeah! I can put some bows on him so he looks like a girl instead of a stinky boy!

Me: Yeah, good idea. Go play beauty shop with Quincy in the bathroom.

Reese: No way. I went poop after school and it smells like Donkey in there.

A day in the life of Quincy Brooklyn

Quincy woke up, had some breakfast, enjoyed some tummy time, spit up her breakfast all over mom's dry-clean-only sweater, ate some more, and changed into a clean outfit.


Then she spit up all over that outfit before her mom could even get a picture.

...then she made a poop.

Which wore her out and made her sleepy.

So she took a nap.