my tooth hurt and the kids got sick -- snip snip

If you've read the title of this post then you really don't need to read any further.  I'm not going to say anything particularly amusing or insightful.  It's been rough (but not exactly bad) and writing is cathartic for me.  Hopefully I won't have more to add to this in coming days.....

My oh my!  Let me provide a little timeline of the couple weeks:

Sunday night -- Stefanie has upset stomach

Monday -- Stefanie has upset stomach (It must have been something I ate since no one else got sick -- and I didn't actually "get sick" but felt really BLAH all day.  Really too bad since it was our first and likely ONLY snow day this winter.)

Tuesday -- Timber has fever and cold symptoms (Happy Valentine's Day!)

Wednesday -- Stefanie wakes up with toothache.  Scout and Timber have runny noses/coughs.

Thursday -- Toothache gets worse.  Visit dentist #1.  Flora has a fever.

Friday -- Toothache is horrible!!  Dentist #1 is closed.  Visit dentist #2.  Dentist #2 doesn't do root canals in her office.  Refer to endodontist.  Cry.  Get a root canal.  Flora still has a fever.

Saturday -- Recovery from root canal is painful.  Chris and Stefanie start exhibiting cold symptoms.  Flora still has a fever.

Sunday -- Recovery from root canal is painful.  Cold symptoms suck.  Flora still has a fever.

Monday -- Hooray!  Tooth is finally feeling much better!  Hard to enjoy due to lack of sleep -- Flora was up all night with fever and coughing.  Stefanie's cold is getting better.....Chris' cold is getting worse.  Flora still has a fever.

Tuesday -- Take Flora to doctor: bronchitis.  Get antibiotics.  Come home to find Chris has set up two humidifiers in our bedroom.  He chugs some NyQuil and heads back to bed as soon as I get home.

Wedneday & Thursday -- We all feel better with each passing day.  Still cold symptoms for Chris, Stefanie, and Flora and still some lingering tooth pain for Stefanie but much better than this time last week.

Friday -- Chris is scheduled to get a vasectomy.  The perfect way to cap off this crazy two weeks, right?!

Notes:

1.  I have never felt as completely hopeless as I did when the endodontist's receptionist informed me that I was only scheduled for a consultation and would have to wait until Tuesday to schedule my root canal.  It was like being in the final stages of labor and finding out that it would still be another few days before the baby would come.  I'm not comparing my toothache to labor pains -- if I had to live with one for three days I would definitely choose the toothache -- but in the moment it seemed like the worse news I could possibly hear.

2.  It was NOT the worse news I could possibly hear.  It's so easy to get caught up in our own struggles and totally lose perspective.  If my biggest problem this week is a root canal and sick kids then I have a pretty good life.  A very good life.  We are very, very blessed and it would be ungrateful and ridiculous to let one week of ill health make me think otherwise.

3.  But my tooth hurt really badly and the thought of living with the pain for three more days was overwhelming.  So.....I cried.  I didn't intentionally cry to guilt the endodontist into staying late on a Friday to fix my tooth.  Honestly.  I don't think I can fake cry....maybe I can....I'll have to try it sometime -- but these were REAL tears.  And they all felt sorry for me and stayed late to do my root canal.  Of course, it wasn't completely out of the goodness of their hearts -- the dental assistant informed me that she was "on overtime pay as of five minutes ago" and had a martini waiting for her after work so she didn't mind staying at all.  And also I was paying them a lot of money.  Oh, and they usually leave the office at 2pm on Fridays so even staying "late" meant that they were still out of the office by 5pm.  It was very nice of them to stay.....I'm just pointing out that there were more factors in play than just my tears.   

4.  Chris is awesome.  I seriously couldn't function while my tooth was hurting and the pain medication I was given only slightly lessened the pain before the root canal.  He brought a bunch of work home and worked in the living room while supervising the kids.  He fixed lunches and wiped bums and broke up arguments.  I helped out but it was hard to be around the kids because their high-pitched voices seemed to go in my ear and straight to my tooth.  Weird, I know.

5.  Chris was great with the kids but not so much the cleaning.  The night of my root canal we sat on the couch and surveyed the disaster area that was our house.  Sometimes I think I don't do anything during the day but after seeing what happens when I REALLY don't do anything for a few days I now know differently.  But we laughed about the fact that we were so perfectly matched because such a messy house didn't bother either of us.  I mean, it would bother me if it was like that all the time, but under the circumstances, it was nice that neither of us was freaking out about a messy house.  We're both messy people at heart.  And the next day, Chris and the kids did an awesome job of cleaning up the living room and kitchen.

6. For some reason, America's Funniest Home Videos was the only thing that could take my mind of the pain when my tooth was hurting.  So when I look back on those foggy days, AFV is pretty the only thing I can remember doing.  I watched it during the day and late at night when I was staying awake until I could take my next dose of medicine.  The thought of watching it now is not very appealing.  I may always associate AFV with pain.....bummer.

See?  I told you this post wasn't worth reading.  But I feel better now that I've written all of that out of my system! 

State of the Union 2012

Ok, so I'm a little late this year but here is my annual State of the Union address (I'll try to keep it shorter than that other guy's State of the Union address):

Timber

     Well, let's see.....  Obviously 2011 was a big year for Timber.  He learned to roll, sit, stand, walk, run, talk(ish), eat solid food, and got his first haircut.  It's hard to top that, huh?!  Maybe I should have saved him for last....  Timber is now 16-months-old and loves chasing Flora and Scout through the house.  He tries so hard to play their big-kid games and is usually pretty good at pretending to know what he's doing.  When he's not imitating Flora and Scout he is usually watching DORA!!, "reading" an animal book, or putting together his puzzles.  He has only recently discovered puzzles and can't seem to get enough of them.
     We recently discovered that Timber is allergic to peanuts and almonds.  On a scale from 0 (no allergy) to 6 (severe allergy), his blood test only put him at a 0.42.  While we're thankful for the low number, we're continuing to follow the doctor's orders to avoid all peanuts and almonds (and basically all nuts since there's so much cross-contamination, I guess) for a couple more years.  Apparently, peanut allergies can worsen with each exposure and we don't want that!  Before he starts school we will do another blood test and possibly meet with an allergist to do an exposure test in a controlled environment.  But that is all a long way off.  Right now we are finding it fairly easy to avoid peanuts and almonds.  And we have an epi-pen that we hope we never need to use -- just in case!

 Scout

     Scout is a little smarty-pants.  He's a scrawny little thing but tough as nails.  He's loud and fast and usually stinky -- basically, he's a boy.  Scout is using the big-boy potty as of last summer and, let me tell you, having only one kid in diapers is aMAZing!  Scout has been seizure-free since his febrile seizure in July.  Of course, he hasn't had a fever since July either but the doctor is fairly confident that he probably does not have a febrile seizure condition.  She said that kids with febrile seizure disorders tend to find ways to develop a fever more often than other kids.  Also, Scout thanks Jesus for Christmas EVERY TIME he prays.  

 

Flora

     Flora is completely out of diapers now!!  She is no longer wearing nighttime diapers and I am sooooo happy to have one child completely out of diapers.  She took a dance class last Fall and absolutely LOVED it!  She also started Awana at church and looks forward to "Awana day" all week.  I think we might try a soccer league next year just to change things up.  I'm completely torn about whether or not to send her to preschool this coming Fall but I think I'm getting close to a decision.  I think I will keep her home this next school year but enroll her in a summer preschool in Summer 2013 -- right before she starts kindergarten.  That's not THE decision yet, but that's what I'm leaning toward.
     Flora is very fancy.  She carries a purse with sparkly lip gloss in it around the house all day and it's not usual for her to pop into her room to change into a princess dress.  We're going to a Fancy Nancy program at the library this Saturday and she already has an "exquisite" outfit picked out to wear.  If you want to pay her the highest compliment, just tell her she looks "exquisite."  She's my girly girly girly girl and I love it!  Flora also participated in our church's Christmas program for the first time in December.  This is a picture of her at the program.  It was a cowboy/ranch themed skit.

 

Chris and Stefanie

     Well, we just aren't very exciting right now.  We did make some major 2012 resolutions that we hope to accomplish in the next 11 months.  Mainly, lose weight, get out of debt, and make my feet look pretty.  We each lost 10 pounds in January!  Woohoo!!  I've developed a deep and meaningful relationship with the treadmill.  I will update more about us when something exciting happens.  There's probably more I could tell now but I'm tired of writing and Chris just got home and I'm not feeling very creative tonight so it probably wouldn't be very interesting anyway. (This is us at our small group's ugly sweater Christmas party -- Chris doesn't usually look this sleazy and I don't usually wear turtlenecks.)

Oh, and my new blog layout includes this nifty LIKE button at the bottom.  I could probably remove it, but then you wouldn't be able to tell me that you LIKE my blog!!  Haha, but no worries, I can't see who LIKEs each post (and I DID remove the DISLIKE button!!).  :-)

crafty moms

Kids.  They're strange little boogers.  Why do they think inappropriate words are funny?  And why do they feel the need to giggle about them in the shopping cart at JoAnn's??  Of course, Mommy had to put a stop to that.  JoAnn's is a relatively quiet store so who knows how many people were judging me for my children's crude sense of humor.

Once I put a stop to the penis giggling they decided to play a rhyming game.
"Ball.  Call.  Wall.  Doll."
"My kids are SO smart," I thought.
"Cat.  Hat.  Bat.  Rat."
"And they're SO sweet to play a little rhyming game while I'm shopping."
"Duck.  Tuck.  F---."
"WHOA!  No more rhyming!!!"
Of course, once Flora had said THAT word she said it again and then said, "Huh, that's a funny word."  I just held my breath hoping that would be the end of it.  I almost expected one of her dolls to have a new name when we got home but thankfully she forgot about her new word discovery once she saw all the jewelry-making supplies at JoAnn's.  Whew!

I really enjoyed browsing JoAnn's with a cart full of kids.  It made me feel like one of THOSE moms -- the moms who sew dresses and pillows and trash can covers and toilet seat cushions, who create beautiful wall hangings out of old toilet paper rolls and fancy door wreaths out of popsicle sticks and teabags, who re-purpose a broken toaster into a funky lamp or a bucket of bottle caps into the Mona Lisa.  I can barely make time to keep my eyebrows plucked, let alone design fashion jewelry out of kitchen utensils.  Somehow these crafty moms manage to dream, design, and create while still putting three meals on the table for their kids.  And I assume their kids don't just watch tv all day so there must be some kind of parent-child interaction taking place.  And kids don't change their own diapers or blow their own noses for at least a couple years.....and then there's the Mess and the Laundry.  The Mess and the Laundry -- my ever-present companions.  At least I'll never be lonely....even if I'm never crafty.

So, ANYWAY, I enjoy walking around JoAnn's with a cart full of kids because as long as I'm in the store I can pretend to be one of those crafty moms.  I imagine that everyone in the store assumes I am a crafty mom (because why else would I be pushing three kids in a too-tiny cart through JoAnn's??) and I certainly don't tell them any differently.

This whole crafty mom thing is all Pinterest's fault -- I wish I could say I was above it all but I'm not.
I want to be crafty.
So I make things.
They're never great but I applaud myself for creating something besides a baby.

Because apparently making babies is not enough to qualify me as a crafty mom these days.

hide-and-seek (aka shout-at-the-wall-and-run)

Flora and Scout play hide-and-seek.  Scout hides while Flora puts her face to the wall and counts loudly to twenty.  She runs off to find Scout.  Timber immediately runs to the wall-spot that Flora has vacated and presses his face to the wall to shout nonsense before running off after Flora.  He has no idea what he's doing but loves playing the "shout at the wall game."  It makes me laugh every time! 

kids say....

Me:  Timber, say "Mama."
Timber:  DORA!
Me:  Mama
Timber:  DORA!
Me:  MAMA!
Timber:  DORA DORA DORA!

*****

Scout:  Mommy, I don't know which way to go.
Me:  (in sing-songy Dora voice because, yeah, I do that) Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?
Timber:  MAP!
--Flora, Scout, and I all turn to stare at him in surprise--
(only Dora-moms will understand)

*****

Me:  Scout, do you need to go pee-pee?
Scout:  No, I need to FLYYYYYY!

*****

Cute Flora-words that I don't bother correcting:
pattern = patterin
something = fumpin
level = langle

cinderelly cinderelly

I just sat at my computer and typed this conversation while it was unfolding.  Typical pretend-play for them.  And no, it wasn't my idea for them to sweep.  Three- and four-year-olds aren't exactly productive sweepers!

Flora and Scout both have brooms and are vigorously cleaning the kitchen floor, cabinets, and walls.

Flora:  Oh, I WISH we could go to the Ball.  All we do is clean clean clean.
Scout:  Yeah.
Flora:  Playing Cinderella is fun!
Scout:  Yeah!  We just clean and clean.
Flora:  Cinderella Scout, don't you want to go to the Ball?
Scout:  I want to go to the park, Cinderella Flora. 
Flora:  We can't go until we do ALL our cleaning.  Work work work!  Cinderella Scout loves to dust and Cinderella Flora loves to sweep!
Me:  Maybe it's time to go the Ball now!
Flora:  No.....we still have a lot to clean up.  We can't go to the Royal Ball until it's dark outside.  Too bad we have to sweep.
Scout:  Yeah....it's too bad.  Hey -- let's sweep the toys!!!
Flora:  Okay!
(sweep toys)
Scout:  Flora!  It's dark outside now!!
Flora:  Good!  We can go to the Ball now!  Let's take our cleaning stuff because I heard there's a lot of things to clean at the Ball.
(they go sit in a box with their brooms -- their "car")
Flora:  Oh, look!  It's Max!  (Max=Timber)
Scout:  Max, you can't come to the Ball because you are too dusty. 
Flora:  Let's dust him off!
(they attack Timber with their brooms, which he absolutely LOVES)
Flora:  Now we need to clean off our beds.
(they sweep two laundry baskets)
Scout:  There.  All clean.
(they each climb into a basket and curl up)
Flora:  Goodnight, Cinderella Scout.
Scout:  Goodnight, Cinderella Flora. 

little miss bossy pants

Flora and Scout were playing firefighters.  Scout ran into the room and said, "Mommy!  There's a fire on you but I have the hose to spray the water on the fire!"  Flora ran in behind him and said, "And I have the checklist to make sure he does everything right!"

And then a few days later we were all cleaning Flora and Scout's room.  Scout volunteered to be the "book man" and pick up all the books.  Flora volunteered to be "the person who makes sure everyone else is doing their work" and ran to get her notebook and pen. 

football, etc...

We are Denver Broncos fans in this house and the kids really get into it.  Every time football is on tv they ask if the Broncos are winning.  During the Broncos first playoff game against the Steelers, Flora declared that she would hold up her Bronco bow (a blue and orange bow courtesy of Aunt Mel) every time the Broncos scored a point.  And she did.  With every score, Flora would solemnly raise her Bronco high -- kind of Statue of Liberty style -- while the rest of us danced and cheered.  When the Broncos pulled off the overtime win the Borkert crowd went wild!  We all did our Bronco dance and Timber was dancing longer than any of us!  He obviously didn't know what prompted the spontaneous dance party but he wasn't going to let that stop him from boogie-ing!

Unfortunately, the kids had to go to bed early in the Broncos/Patriots game last night.  When I went in later to check on them, Flora asked, "Did the Broncos win yet?"  Sadly, I had to inform her that the Broncos were not going to win this game.  "Bummer," she said.  Yeah.....I agree.  Today we are watching the Houston/Baltimore game.  When I turned on the tv, Flora asked if it was the Broncos.  I told her no and then informed her that it was the Texans and the Ravens.  She gasped, put her hands to her cheeks in excitement, and said, "Mommy!  I think I have a Texas swimsuit for this game!!"  Lo and behold, she did!  One of her Barbies has a University of Texas cheerleading outfit.  Where did THAT come from???  We'll have to trash that when she's not looking.

Other stories:

**I told the kids they couldn't play outside on a really cold day.  Determined to prove that she could dress appropriately for a chilly day outside, Flora informed me that she was going to put on "one thousand clothes and two panties."  She didn't make it to "a thousand clothes" but she did manage to squeeze into twelve shirts!

**Our church recently celebrated it's 25th birthday.  I told the kids that we were going to have a birthday party for the church and Flora said she was going to make a present for the church.  She was gone for a minute and then came back to show me the imaginary present she had made.  "It's a new stem!" she said.  "A new stem with colors and lights that flash and it spins around!"  Haha....awesome.  I would love to see our church steeple replaced with her colorful, flashing, spinning "stem." 

whirlwind bedtime

The kids had a rare late bedtime tonight.  I'm usually pretty strict about them being in bed by 8pm but tonight we were visiting friends with a new baby so we got home a little after 9pm.  My job was simple:  pajamas, diapers for Scout and Timber, brush teeth, bedtime.  To the inexperienced reader it may sound simple but I knew that wrangling three kids who were already on a sugar high and a I'm-so-tired-I'm-out-of-control-zany high was going to be tough.  For further reading on bedtime wrangling, see this post.

We had a plan.  Upon arriving home, I would change Timber's diaper and put him in pajamas while Flora and Scout went potty and put their pajamas on.  Then I would put Timber to bed and help them brush their teeth before putting them to bed.  On the drive home I went over the plan with Flora and Scout several times to make sure they knew their roles.  They were enthusiastic and I was optimistic.

*cue dramatic, ominous music*

We pulled into the garage and I unbuckled Timber and grabbed our makeshift diaper bag (a gift bag) and my purse and told the big kids to hop out of the van.  Flora pretended to be asleep and Scout climbed into the driver's seat.  Lovely.  After much cajoling and warning of the darkness that would engulf the garage once the overhead van light went off, they finally walked into the house.  We had to stop and start several times on the way up the stairs because Scout had to jump twice on every stair and Flora was scared of the dark house.  Timber and my bags were getting REALLY heavy.

We finally made it up the stairs and Scout and Flora each ran to a bathroom (hooray!).  Just as I was about to change Timber, Scout needed me to help him with his shoes.  Then Flora started crying hysterically from my room because the bathroom light was off (she's going through a scared-of-the-dark phase -- obviously).  I took off Scout's shoes and plopped him on the potty then scrambled to my room to assist Flora.  Just as I turned on the bathroom light for her, I heard Timber take a nasty fall in the hallway.  I rushed to comfort him and Flora started crying hysterically again and I noticed that Scout was now off the potty and running around naked.  This was NOT the plan.

So....new plan.  I changed Timber in the bathroom with Flora so she would stop crying and go potty.  Scout running around naked was low on my list of issues for a few minutes.  It's not like it's the first time he's been naked.  Eventually, all of the kids were dressed for bed!  Hooray!  I put Timber to bed (one down, two to go!) -- he always goes to bed so easily so that wasn't an issue at all (best part of my night probably!) -- then went to help Flora and Scout brush their teeth.  Of course, 10 seconds into the teeth brushing Flora fell off her stool and hurt her bum.  More hysterical crying.  I have to say that, in my experience, girls are MUCH bigger cryers than boys are.

Brush, brush, brush -- then corral them and all their bedtime stuff into their room.  Read a book and goodnight.  WHEW!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that somewhere in this 30 minutes of chaos Scout and Timber EACH managed to eat soap.  Two separate occasions.  Soap that has been in that bathroom for months now.  Why did they suddenly decide to put the soap in their MOUTHS tonight??  And not even in a get-into-trouble-together-because-we're-brothers-and-that's-what-boys-do sort of way but individually in a I-think-I-should-eat-soap sort of way.  

And then to top it all off, Scout says that Jesus is poopy.
"No, he's not," I say.
"But Baby Jesus went poopy in his diaper," Scout replied.
I didn't have anything to say to that.
He was right.  
(Grandma, I doubt your pastor uses this one in a sermon!!)

It was a crazy evening -- I'm dieting and by the time all three kids were finally in bed I was FRANTICALLY digging through my purse for the sugar cookie that the babysitter had sent home with me.  "Frantically" might not even be a strong enough word there.....I'm pretty sure I could have fought off ten strong men for that cookie.

But now all is quiet and I'm happily blogging (and feeling surprisingly little remorse about that cookie) and looking forward to tomorrow.  Tomorrow is FRIDAY and this Mommy gets Friday mornings OFF!

Goodnight kids -- hello sleeping in late and shopping!

today

There was nothing very special about today.  Nothing to make this day stand out in my mind years from now.  In fact, I'd guess that the entire contents of this day will be completely forgotten in less than a year's time.  It just seems so sad to think that all of the laughs and growing up that took place today will vanish into the vault of time so soon. 

I'm listening to piano music so of course I'm feeling nostalgic and sentimental.  Is it even possible to listen to piano without a lump in your throat??  Not in my experience....

So I want to preserve a few little moments from the day.  Because I don't want to forget how Scout put his pajamas on inside out and fell over from laughing so hard.  Or Flora's intent expression as she make a perfect bed for Olga and tucked her in to sleep.  I definitely don't want to forget the perfect kiss -- kissy noise and all -- that Timber planted on my cheek before bedtime.  I want to remember Scout crawling into bed with me this morning and gently stroking my cheek when he thought I was asleep.  And the BIG hug Flora gave me tonight -- her perfectly pudgy little arms wrapped tight around my neck.  I don't want to forget the way Timber ran and threw himself into my arms when I sat in the hallway and held my arms out to him.  I want to remember that I had the opportunity to carry all three of my babies at some point today.

There were a lot of not-so-lovely moments today too......a LOT.   But I don't mind forgetting those.