a good nights rest

My kids have taken mercy on me, and for two nights in a row, they've all slept through the night (as have I)... and they've stayed in their own beds. I feel almost human.

Cutest Cookies EVER

For reals. These are the yummiest cookies ever. I got the recipe from a great cook at a holiday recipe exchange at church. They have the texture and taste just like brownies, only they're so much cuter.... they are quite time intensive to figure out the right proportions though, but I'm pretty sure that they'll taste just as good a little round circles instead of teddy bears.

9 months old

I love babies in just diapers.

With all my babies, I've taken pictures (almost) monthly on this same changing table in just a diaper until they were a year... How is he 9 months old already??

Little updates

A bunch of little things...

As soon as Bryson does something, you can bet Dallin will be close behind trying to copy him... tonight it was for the better though- I always put at least a small portion of everything we're having for dinner on my kids plates- no matter how many times they've spit it out before, I generally make them try everything too. Dallin will usually try his broccoli and then spit it out, thoroughly disgusted... but tonight, Bryson munched down his veggies and then asked for more broccoli and carrots- I saw Dallin look up from his plate with his head tilted to the side a little, so I eagerly gave Bryson his requested second helping- I usually would have insisted that he eat some of his chicken first, but I wanted to see what happened... Dallin watched intently as Bryson ate bite after bite after bite of broccoli and carrots, and then, lo and behold, Dallin looked at a (tiny) piece of broccoli on his plate, picked it up, examined it a little more, said, "gock-wee" to himself, popped it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed it!! And then he asked for MORE!! Consistency... persistence... tonight it paid off.

I saw a lawn care truck today with 'Mowing for Jesus' on the side... mmmmmK, and I'll bet he appreciates all the nicely cut grass. 'nuff said.

This morning while Bryson was at school, I went to Coeur D'Alene for a few errands (where I spotted the 'Mowing for Jesus' truck) and the entire 1/2 hour there and 1/2 hour back, I listened to 'Life is a Highway' by Rascal Flatts from the (favorite) movie Cars over and over and over per Dallins request- "Eye-wee 'gain mommy!" (Highway again mommy!) from the backseat every time the song finished.

Before it got too icy and (even more) cold, we hung our Christmas lights on our house tonight- My brother Dan came over to help/take over *grin* and outdid his amazing job from last year. When the lights finally came on, Bryson, with such excitement yelled, "SANTA!!"- 'cause that's why we have Christmas lights- so that Santa will know how to get to our house.

Do unto others

Remember how in my last post, I mentioned about our neighbors bringing us some cookies? Well they did, and they were yummy. So Bryson wanted to return the favor and make them cookies to give them back with their plate... apparently he got sick of waiting for me to make cookies, so he took matters into his own creative hands while I was napping this afternoon (I love me a Sunday afternoon nap)...
Yes, those are the worlds tiniest chocolate chip cookies... and no, at 4 1/2 years old, Bryson is not a culinary genius... they're Cookie Crisp cereal *grin* He ever so carefully placed them on their plate, and even tried to bring them over to Torsten and Katrins- but the chain on the top of the front door stopped him. Guess we'll have to make some real cookies today... they have allergies, so the cookies will be egg free, dairy free, and nut free cookies- doesn't that sound yummy? We'll see how it turns out.

Opposites

Bryson and Dallin could not be any more different if they tried. Even my pregnancies with them were so different. I remember being so relieved when we found out Dallin was a boy because since my due dates were a day apart with them, all my boy clothes would fit in the right season. Or not. Bryson was 90th percentile, Dallin was less than the 10th... all along the way, they've just done things completely the opposite- even with their eating habits. Dallin loves chicken and meat, and Bryson loves his veggies- his favorite food is 'matatoes' (tomatoes). Oddly enough, they both loathe potatoes in any form unless they're french fried... some common ground they can build on I guess.

Tonight during dinner, a neighbor brought by some cookies (thanks Torsten *grin*) and, as usual, I told Bryson he couldn't have any until he finished his meat, which he slowly but surely did- and Dallin he couldn't have any until he ate some broccoli and carrots. Dallin eats carrots just fine if they're raw (and smothered in ranch dressing), but doesn't like cooked carrots- He never really eats his broccoli- he always 'tries' it by putting it in his mouth and then sticking his tongue out and letting it fall out of his mouth.. I actually found him trying to shove his carrots down the air vent on the dining room floor- little stinker... BUT, tonight he eventually ate his broccoli and carrots... never mind that it was a teensy tiny sprig of broccoli and a single carrot cube- and that I held my hand under his mouth so that as he tried to spit it out, I'd 'help' it back in reminding him that he wanted a cookie. I'm pretty sure he thought it was worth it in the end.

They're on to me

I think my kids have been blog stalking me because now they've upped the ante... for the last three nights, they've doubled their efforts. Literally. Eli has been up at least three times a night (more on that in a sec), and either Dallin or Bryson has come into my bed somewhere during the night- Bryson said his bed was 'hot and cold'... mmmmK.

Tuesday during breakfast I noticed something in Eli's ear... oh, turns out his ear was full of dried blood, as in 'completely-blocking-the-entire-ear-canal-with-a-nasty-blood-clot' full of dried blood. After I regained my composure, I made an appointment with his ENT (he's the best doctor ever)... turns out, a blood vessel close to where the tube was placed was irritated and was bleeding... so we get to do some more ear drops- great! He H-A-T-E-S any sort of messing with his ears whatsoever. Yesterday his ears were fine, but the one side was full on bleeding again last night/today. Dr. Leavitt said that it shouldn't hurt, but may be a little annoying... hmmm, so what's the deal little Eli?? Whats up with this thrice a night stuff? I surrender! I admit it- you boys are in control here! I AM AT YOUR MERCY!! I am begging you, just please let me sleeheeeheeeeep!

Halloween week...

I'm sure this isn't the last time during this holiday season that I'll comment on my blog about how much more fun holidays are when you have kids. It's so fun as they get older and really start anticipating the holidays and all the festivities that come along with them...
We stuffed and painted paper bags and made them into pumpkins- So sad that I was so proud of myself for letting the kids do their own all by themselves... they did such a good job too- Dallin had fun painting the counter top when his bag was done... and then his face- can you see his orange lips? I was a smart mama and took his shirt off before we started painting.

We made sugar cookies to deliver to neighbors- of course we couldn't only do Halloween shapes- Bryson insisted on some trains and firetrucks too- Dallin frosted his own cookie...

but ended up frosting the counter- I'm seeing a pattern here

On a non-Halloween note, Eli learned how to pull himself to a stand in his crib... boy was he proud- and now of course he wants to do nothing else but pull up so he can stand and show off...

even if he is at a 75 degree angle...

We invited some neighbors over and carved up our pumpkins- Bryson was very eager to clean his out all by himself and thought it was pretty cool at first...

but then it was slimy and he was pretty sure it was clean enough after 2 handfuls. Sorry Charlie!

All of us together- Dallin even got in on the action, not surprisingly... the magnet for messes that he is. Someday, Eli will look at these pictures and wonder "where was I?" Sorry... you were crying in your exersaucer little buddy...

The finished products- You can't really tell what mine is, but it's a cat in a window pane with a tree and the moon... Bryson's is the bat, and he really did do most of it himself... Nathan's is the goofy face that could really use a good orthodontist.

Bryson and Dallin were very proud. Eli was sleeping in his crib.

Last year before Halloween, I went to the annual 'candy sale' at Rosauers and bought way too much candy (like five big paper grocery bags too much)... and then we went to University high school on Halloween morning to go trick or treating- the high schoolers line the halls giving out candy and Bryson's pumpkin bucket was so full, he couldn't carry it... nor could I as I was carrying Dallin and pregnant at the time. That night, I was literally handing out candy by the handfuls just trying to get rid of it!

This year I learned from last year and didn't buy any candy. You read that right- Halloween came and went, and I bought no candy. Halloween morning we went to U-high again and trick or treated- this time filling up both Bryson and Dallins pumpkin buckets, and then, while they were 'trunk or treating' at our church party, filling them up again, we handed out their loot from the morning! It worked nicely and Bryson and Dallin didn't know any different *grin*

Since the beginning of October, when I would mention Halloween, Bryson was adamant that he wanted to be Darth Vader or some other Star Wars character- he's never even seen the movies (nor have I!) but his neighborhood friends are big fans and talk about it all the time- his cousin Chad even gave him a light saber so now he can play Star Wars with his friends- even though he really has no idea what it is... I had already had the idea for Eli being a scuba diver, so I thought it would be great to do a whole ocean type theme for the kids- My sister Kim had a killer whale costume, which when Bryson saw, he was very excited about being Shamu (thanks to our recent trip to Sea World)... I really wanted to figure out something great for Dallin to go along with Bryson and Eli's costumes, but time and ideas ran out... I had an Elmo costume I had bought for Bryson a few years ago that never fit him, but it fit Dallin perfectly, and he was excited to be 'melmo'...
They were pretty much all candied out in this picture, but it's the best one I have of all three of them (thanks Taraka for the pic!)
Sorry Bryson and Dallin, but Eli deserves his own picture for how cute his costume turned out!! I'd seen the idea in a magazine years ago and recreated it... the paci regulator leads to baby bottle oxygen tanks on his back *grin* He was precious in it and loved all the attention he got from everyone... At U-high that morning, one kid actually asked me (in all seriousness) if that would really work to breathe underwater... I didn't dignify that with an answer.

On ears and sleep

After 13 ear infections in 11 months, Bryson had surgery to have tubes placed in his ears. I was pretty hesitant at first to do surgery... I'm not sure why when you consider all the antibiotics he was one before the tubes, but regardless, I have never regretted getting them.

Dallin had a few ear infections, but not enough to warrant tubes. (He did have eye surgery just before his first birthday though.)

Eli has had ear infections non-stop since early August. After 3 rounds of antibiotics, he still had cloudy fluid (indicating infection) in his ears last week, so to me, it was a no brainer to get tubes- especially since our deductibles had already been met this year from his birth *grin* So on Thursday, I brought him for his surgery... I really truly was not worried... I knew it was the right thing to do- plus, he wouldn't be intubated or have an IV and would only be out for less than 20 minutes... an hour after surgery, he was happily playing on the family room floor as if nothing had happened. The only downside, is that now I'll have to find something new to blame any crabbiness on.

So I'm pretty convinced that my kids are in cahoots with each other to sabotage my sleep. But it may be paranoia induced by sleep deprivation. ALL of them individually are great sleepers, but I'm pretty sure they have a little pow wow each night to determine which of them will disturb my slumber that night:

Eli: c'mon guys! I've been able to pull off the "I've been coughing and now I'm awake so I may as well eat" bit for three nights, I'm bushed, one of you needs to get mom up tonight...

Dallin: well, I could always pull the "I need a drink" string...

Bryson: no, no, it's been well over 6 months since I wet the bed, I'll take one for the team tonight, besides Dallin, mom can get you a drink in her sleep, but changing sheets.....

Okay, so now my sleep deprivation has proved me delusional. And I'll have you know that I fantasize about posting about this as I'm trying to fall back asleep...

So the night before Eli's surgery, I had a hard time sleeping because I was so conscientious of the time and whether or not I could breastfeed Eli or just be able to give him juice... or nothing... ie: past 2am-no breastmilk; past 5am-no juice. So as I tossed and turned, and Eli slept (for the first night in a few nights) and finally just before 5, I got up to give him some juice for fear of his hunger at 7am at which point I could do nothing for him. So the only night in a few weeks that ALL of my kids slept through the night, I slept terribly. Great.

One a side note, Dallin woke up the next night at 2am crying and when I went in his room, he pointed to his ear and said, "eow huwt mommy (ear hurt mommy)" So for an hour and a half, we sat on the couch (since he vehemently denied any tylenol or decongestants) as he tried to doze but instead kept pulling at his ear. And then *whahlah* I remembered the ear numbing drops I had... three drops and 30 seconds and he was zonked. Wish I'd have remembered them a little sooner. Fortunately, Bryson was a dream the next day and took a nap with me while Dallin and Eli napped also- when I thanked him for being so good, he said, "no pwoblem mom." I love my kids- even if it means my favorite past time (ie: sleeping) suffers *grin* And now, here I sit, blogging while my kids are in bed sleeping. I'm going to bed.