Overheard

So last night I suggested that Joel should help Ben with his homework while I put the baby to bed. Most of Ben's summer homework consists of handwriting practice, and this week his teacher gave him some sheets of paper for practicing writing certain letters that he still has trouble making correctly. I should have known that Joel helping Ben with handwriting practice was not the best idea, because as I got the baby changed into her pajamas upstairs I overheard certain alarming snippets of conversation from downstairs such as --

JOEL: I don't think that's how you're supposed to make a "b", Wait, I'm not sure. Let me try. Well, this is how I do it, is that right? Hmmm... I don't think I do it right either. I think we need to ask Mommy...

BEN: This is how I make a "k"... Daddy, we both make "k" the same way.... that means it must be wrong.

First Day

Of Becca's last year at CJP!

From the Kids

Flowers, cupcakes, a card and artwork were waiting for me when I got home from Asheville. Do I have the greatest kids or what??

Sunset over mountains

Asheville

Instructions

When Ben was little and we used to leave him overnight (with grandparents only, mind) I used to leave a veritable instruction manual covering everything from thermostat settings to feedings and everything in between. For this trip, which will be the first time we have left any of the kids (much less all 3) overnight with a babysitter (two nights!), I am consciously trying to tone it down a bit. So far I have only taped two pieces of paper to the refrigerator. One is a list of  important information (the kids' birthdates, health insurance information, and a slew of phone numbers some of which I can't possibly envision a need for), and the other is a daily schedule for Caroline (to be used as a guideline only! I am not that anal). I do plan on taking the baby sitter room by room when she gets here (she has not been to the new house yet), and possibly on a drive-by of the camp and day care, so she knows where to go to pick up all the kids tomorrow. But I am not stressing out about this. I swear. (Can't we just take the baby with us...?)

Weekend Update

This weekend Joel had to work and had a very busy service so I was solo with the kids for the most part. Saturday we did a lot of chores and errands, including cleaning my car which was probably the most disgusting it has ever been. I had to disengage the rear seats to vacuum underneath them properly, and I must have vacuumed up a pound of potato chips, goldfish crackers, and who knows what else. I also found a random shoe that no one had apparently missed, numerous toys/stuffed animals, and a lovely sticky surprise of unknown origin inside the cup holders. I am re-instituting the ban on food in my car! After cleaning it myself for an hour, I took it (and the kids) to Auto Bell, where it was cleaned inside and out again. And now it is pretty respectable again! For the time being.

We had dinner with friends Saturday night, after Joel got home from work, and Caroline was so well-behaved it was freaky! Even though we were out past her bedtime, she did not make a peep (like literally not a single sound) the entire time. She just sat in her high chair and gnawed on the edge of the table. She also started rolling herself over, which is helping tremendously at nap time because she rolls onto her stomach and falls asleep much better that way. So she got 4 solid naps this weekend. Yay Caroline!

Yesterday I took the kids to the pool, where they got henna tattoos (well, not the baby) and had ice cream sandwiches and played with their friends, and still managed to whine a fair bit over nothing.

Now the countdown to the weekend (and Asheville without kids) begins!

Relaxing

She rolled over!

Number 3 has to feed herself

Follow us on Twitter

In an attempt to become more "hip" and "with it", Bringing Up Ben and Becca (and baby) now has a Twitter feed. You can follow us @benbeccababy. First tweet already sent... I'll hunt you down if you don't follow us... yes that means YOU!

Another Hectic Day...

So yesterday instead of picking my 3 kids up and taking Ben to tutoring after camp, I ended up picking them up + 2 more, my friend Joanna's two older boys, since her car died and she was stuck at the dealership trying to buy a new one. So instead of 3 kids at the library, I had 5! While Ben did his tutoring the other kids played on the computers (well except for Caroline, who played with her toes. And her tongue). Then back to my house where we ordered pizza and then eventually delivered the boys back to their mom. Then I had to catch up on work stuff for a solid 2 hours while Joel got the kids to bed.

 I am pretty sure I went to bed around 10, but I was so tired by that point I don't much remember it. I was awoken at 1am by Caroline screaming her head off, and after checking on her and finding nothing amiss I decided I had better just let her cry, so that she can get back into her normal good sleeping habits, which have been totally screwed up along with being sick last week. Since Joel and I are going to be away next weekend, I don't want the babysitter to have to deal with a screaming baby in the middle of the night!

And boy, did she scream, and kick her fat little legs so hard that the ceiling shook. And I closed all the kids bedroom doors and watched TV for 2 hours (Joel missed all this because he had to be at work at 7 this morning so went to bed early upstairs in the bonus room).

Fun stuff.

This morning she had an appointment with the OT, who pronounced that she will have outgrown her helmet in 2 weeks, so she has 2 more weeks of helmet-wearing, and her head, while not perfect, is more or less perfect enough to pass inspection, she thinks. So with that resounding endorsement, we are counting down the final 2 weeks of helmet-wearing! She does want me to get a second opinion from the pediatrician about whether or not she thinks her head is good enough, or does she (god forbid) need a second helmet.

And now, back to work...

Vets & Dentists

So the story on Clara is that last night while Joel was changing his clothes after work, he apparently accidentally shut Clara in the bedroom, and she amused herself during her confinement by going into the bathroom and eating my razor (note to self: need to buy a new razor). We did find several pieces of mangled metal in the carpet next to the chewed-off handle of the razor, but took her to the vet anyway for an X ray to make sure she had not swallowed any pieces of the blade. It appears she did not. Clara and I however were out until nearly midnight, and that combined with a 3am wake-up call from Caroline means mommy is tired!! Oh, and $220 poorer, thanks to the X Ray/ exam....

I could not sleep in this morning, because Rebecca had a dentist appointment, so I had to get Ben to camp and the baby to day care and then go to my favorite place with a 4 year old (NOT), the dentist. Becca took pity on my exhausted state though, and chose not to pitch any fits, which makes it the FIRST TIME she has gotten through a dental exam without any screaming. WOO HOO! And now, armed with coffee, I must get some work done until 3:30 when I need to pick up all 3 kids and take Ben to his tutoring session....

Dear Clara...

Maybe you did not get the memo that razor blades are not edible objects. Let's try to get out of the vet's office with as little damage to your intestinal tract (and my wallet) as possible, okay?

Caroline Found Her Tongue

And she will not put it away.

Golf

Yesterday Joel decided he wanted to get the kids some golf clubs and take them to the driving range. Or rather, I think he would have preferred to just get Ben some golf clubs and take him to the driving range, but Rebecca refused to be left out of this equation. So we set off for Dick's in the morning, since I needed new sneakers also. Our quest for the proper sized clubs went smoothly until we remembered that Rebecca is left handed. This necessitated a call to all the other Dick's stores in Charlotte, searching out the single left-handed golf club in her size in the entire city. Which we eventually tracked down and purchased. And then off to the driving range, with a stop for lunch first and a stop at home to collect a few supplies (sun block, drinks, an extra bottle for the baby, etc). So we did not actually get to the driving range until nearly 2pm, when it was about 8,000 degrees out with not a drop of shade in sight. The kids behaved reasonably until about halfway through their bucket of balls, when the heat began to get to them and they started making all sorts of woeful declarations about dying of thirst and/or heat stroke. We ended up finishing in a hurry, buying the kids some Powerade, and collapsing in exhaustion on the couch at home for a while. Eventually Joel got up and went back out to the driving range by himself, since he had not gotten to hit many balls himself in between the whining/teaching the kids how to swing their clubs, etc. I would say that the kids enjoyed it, but I am not positive of that. I think they might have, if it had not been so freaking hot.

Puppy Snuggles

Future Rock Star in Action

You might notice the dog being used as a footrest in the background.

Future Rock Star

Blurry but cute!

The Croupy Baby

Definitely improved today.

Ben's Check-up / Caroline Update

Ben had his 8 year old check up this morning, so I called beforehand and explained about Caroline and got her scheduled with an appointment at the same time as Ben's. She did better than I expected last night - woke up with the croupy cough a few times, but was able to put herself back to sleep, and did not need the albuterol treatment. The doctor said her lungs sound very good today, so besides the steroid for her croup which she still needs tonight and tomorrow night, she might not need the inhaler at all. Which is good, because I've heard those things can make kids jittery. She is currently taking a nap, and I did hear the croup coming back when she was fussing before falling asleep, but it is still a lot better than it was last night.

Ben's check up was uneventful, except for the news that he is allowed to graduate from his booster seat ;) (He'd been asking for a while, and I told him he needed to ask the doctor at his check up before I'd let him). He weighs 63 pounds and is 55 1/2 inches tall. Still tracking right along where he always does at the top of the growth curve! After the appointment I dropped him off at camp, put the baby down for a nap,  and am trying to a) get work done, b) fix our home phone which stopped working, and c) get someone from BuyBuy  Baby to come fix the baby's dresser, which had a foot fall off of it while I was attempting to move it yesterday. Busy day so far. Ben also has tutoring after camp today, lucky me!

Triple Whammy

Caroline started barking like a seal a little bit this morning, and by the end of the day she was barking like a seal a lot and had a 102 fever. I met Joel at the pediatric urgent care clinic, and he took Ben and Becca out to dinner while I got Caroline checked out. She has an ear infection, croup, AND bronchialitis. She got a steroid shot for the croup, a nebulizer treatment for the wheezing caused by the broncialitis, and a prescription for antibiotics for her ear. We also got a prescription for 2 more doses of oral steroids and an inhaler in case she starts wheezing again. I brought her home, picked up her prescriptions, got a cool mist humidifier going in her room... But I can still hear her starting to cough again. I am afraid it's going to be a long night.

Belated Birthday Video

It occurs to me that I never uploaded any happy-birthday-song video from Ben's birthday last month. Well, that will just not do! I did not actually manage to get a video at Ben's sleepover party with his friends and his Bakugan cake, because Joel started the happy-birthday-singing before I had the camera ready (Bad Joel!) But here is video from his actual birthday, at PF Chang's for dinner. Happy birthday Ben! Again.

Becca Swims!

But doesn't necessarily breathe.

Going Swimming

Camp Mindy Pancake and Bingo Breakfast

Almost too hot even for this!

Another 100 degree day in Charlotte. Fortunately the heat wave is forecast to break in a couple of days. We might even see temps back down in the 80s!

Movie Night

So, we decided to start a Friday night "family movie night", and rented a beloved classic from my childhood -  The Neverending Story. I wanted the kids to like it of course, and of course when you tell your kids they will like something that you liked when you were a kid, they do everything in their power to NOT like it. They were squirmy and restless when the movie first started, and then finally when they seemed to be getting into it a little along came the scene where Atrayu's horse Artax sinks in the Swamp of Sorrows... and both kids started BAWLING and refused to watch any more of the movie. So much for family movie night.

ARTAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Sigh* Joel says he's picking the movie next time.

4th of July

We had a relatively quiet 4th of July, considering most of us are still recovering from / in the throes of a yucky cold. After a year and a half of owning an AppleTV, we finally a) found it in the garage and b) successfully got it to work. We used it to rent Superman 2 for the kids on Tuesday night, which they thoroughly enjoyed. This came after a not-so-great stint of Joel renting DVDs from the Redbox at the grocery store, and racking up $60 in charges from not returning them on time. So finally I decided we needed to find the darn AppleTV and start using it. This is the 21st century after all.

On the 4th itself, Joel took Ben to see The Avengers, and we bought some of the legal fireworks (the ones that don't lift off the ground) and did some of those with the kids after dinner. When the "real" (ie illegal) fireworks started a block over,  the crowd of 8 or so kids that had gathered to watch our fireworks immediately took off. Joel took Ben over to watch those, while I cleaned up our driveway and got Becca settled in front of the TV (she had zero desire to see the bigger fireworks; the ones we did were PLENTY exciting enough for her). Joel and Ben did not return until 10:30, so it was a late night for the kids. Caroline slept blissfully through all the racket.

Banned

This is a smiling baby who has been banned from day care for having diarrhea 3x yesterday. She is actually rather grumpy (had to coax her to smile for the camera), since she has a runny nose, diarrhea, maybe the sore throat the rest of us have, and has been entertaining herself sitting on the floor of my office all day. She is getting rather bored. And Mommy is getting rather desperate to get some work done.

Heat Wave Update

We had a high temperature of 104 degrees each of the last 3 days (Friday,Saturday,Sunday). Friday the kids were kept indoors at camp for the afternoon, and I tried not to venture outside too much at all. Saturday Joel took Ben and Rebecca to our neighborhood pool in the morning, but was home by noon, and we spent the rest of the afternoon indoors until dinner time, when we ventured out to Chili's with some friends and then to Pinkberry. It was still 100 degrees at dinner time, so even just being outside that short amount of time was kind of miserable.

Yesterday we headed south to our friends' Quimby and Sue, where we spent the morning sitting in the baby pool of their development drinking beer. Their development has this big baby pool that is like 2 1/2 feet at its deepest probably. The 4 kids (our older two and their two) mostly played in the baby pool (it has a slide and some water spray stuff and a swing thingy) so we did not feel like disastrously bad parents for sitting in the baby pool and drinking beer. Caroline we passed around from lap to lap, and since I'd forgotten her hat, she wore a onesie tied around her head. At around noon, when it became too hot even for this pasttime, we headed back to their house for lunch.

All in all, we managed to survive the heat wave. Today I believe the temperature is "only" going to be in the high 90s, though my phone says it's going to be 100, but weather.com has a differing opinion and says only 97. Either way is better than 104... hoping for some cooler (ie low 90s) temps later in the week!