Mumbo Jumbo

Have you ever seen that movie The Saint with Val Kilmer?  I have NO idea why I had that part in my head about the "cold fusion mumbo jumbo," I love that movie and I love that part!

I have a bunch of little things I wanted to post about and just thought Id make a rambing bunch of mumbo jumbo and get it all out in one post. So here goes nothing......

The other day I had to call the Ped to give the update on Brynlee's meds. My exact words were "she seems slightly better, but Im not ready to pursue anything further at this time." As in I didnt want to jump right in with an ultrasound or any other tests. The doc was fine with that and urged me to give the meds a few more days. And Im glad I did. She has been better and better each day. It is getting easier and easier to give her the meds. Dont get me wrong, she still HATES taking it, but thankfully it is once a day and I have my side kick (AKA best big sister ever/Kaylee) to help me each morning. She hasnt had any of her ridiculous screaming fits for hours at a time like she was having and she nurses almost without any problems at just about every feeding! So YAY for that!!! Back to the 1st sentence of this paragraph......I had to call the Ped and give that update and after the receptionist took my info about Brynlee she attempted to get off the phone, as she would usually do. i quickly stopped her and asked her if I could go ahead and book my 3 year old for her 3 year checkup. She checked for available appointments and we settled on a day and time. She again tried to get off the phone as she would usually and I stopped her again. I asked her if I needed to book an out-patient appointment for my 5 year old to get her 2nd of her 3 Kindergarten shots. She explained that i DID need an appointment and I asked for the same day/time as Ainslee's checkup. We got all of that straightened out and before she attempted to get off the phone a third time I said "I think Im done now, I dont have any other kids that need anything." She laughed and that was that. I love killing two birds with one stone!

Besides those appointments we have 2 dentist appointments (myself and Ainslee) in the coming weeks, and before you know it Brynlee will have another checkup appointment. i cant wait to see how much weight she has gained, she is a little fatty! And Kaylee will be due for her 3rd round of Kindergarten shots. I guess the more kids you have the more time you spend at the doctors.

Now I have to say (for my own record) and I hope I dont jinx anything, but my baby has started to extend her sleeping at night. Just when I am about to become completely exhausted with the every 3-4 hour schedule at night, she ups it to a minimum of 5 hours between feedings. And I couldnt be more thankful! Not only that, but she has given up pooping at night, which makes diaper changes SOOOO much easier when you are completely delirious. Oh and on top of all that she has gained complete control during diaper changes and no longer poos or pees in the middle of a change. Yippee Skippee!
We started a new project today for Ainslee's upcoming birthday. I got a crazy idea to make a pinata for her birthday. I decided on Minnie Mouse. FYI I didnt even give the child a choice I figured it was going to be the easiest to make, and she LOVES Minnie so I went with it. We gathered our materials**, watched a couple YouTube videos as part of our research/prep and got to work. MAN was it MESSY! I had NO idea how messy of a project it was going to be! I decided that it is going to have to be a project we complete only when there is another adult around to help, because I cant grow any extra arms, and if i am needed it takes a good while to get cleaned up before I am able to tend to the children. Today we successfully got our 1st layer on, and the videos we watched and the things I read said you need a minimum of 3 layers. I am SO glad I started early! Oh and after about 8 seconds into the project Ainslee decided it was ENTIRELY too messy of a project for her to participate in so she enjoyed watching from the sidelines. She got really good at telling us which parts needed more newspapers. And now her Minnie Mouse is drying in the bathroom and will most likely receive her second coat tomorrow when my friend Bethany and her daughters come over to play. She will be in charge of the little ones and taking pictures, while I am elbow deep in the flour/water mixture dipping endless pieces of newpapers with the big girls. OH the joys of homeschooling and projects.

I have to tell you something that happened the other day that brought a tear to my eye. I have mentioned before how Kaylee is like the all time most stellar big sister ever......well just the other mmornng Brynlee was having a rough time. She was inconsolable, wanted to go down for a nap but wanted me to HOLD her during said nap. I have entirely too much to do during the day to hold her for naps. So this meant the crying ensued. Id get her settled, put her down, and she would cry. Finally Kaylee said "Mommy just give her to me!" as she climbed onto the couch. I handed a screaming crying baby to my 5 year old and within 45 seconds Kaylee had her settled. I continued to do what I was doing in the kitchen (with a clear view of them) and I hear Kaylee start to talk to Bryn about all the things they are giong to do when she gets bigger. Kaylee said "you can take baths with me and AZ, I can teach you how to ride a 2 wheeled bike (this is a skill Kaylee hasnt even mastered yet), I can show you how to do the monkey dance (like on Dora), you can wear my clothes when I get too big," etc. I cant even remember all the things Kaylee was telling her she was going to get to do. Meanwhile I am nearly in tears trying to figure out if i should get the camera or try to soak in the moment and remember all that was said and exactly how it happened. All I know was I was frozen, I couldnt move to get the camera as one tear ran down my face I stood there SO thankful for that moment. There are so many times throughout the day that I think to myself I couldnt make it without Kaylee. So then that night as I put Kaylee to bed it was time to nurse Brynlee. I had put her off too long as I was trying to get the big girls down. As I walked out of Kaylee's room, and Brynlee is crying out in starvation (clearly she is starving to death, if you havent seen her cheeks lately it looks as if she has 2 baseballs in her mouth!) Kaylee says "its ok Bryn I will hold you again in the morning." Again I nearly lost it!

While on the subject of the 5 year old I have to tell you how ridiculously proud i am when it comes to school too. We have had some AWESOME school days lately. She is grasping the concepts and loving her work. She is so proud of what she accomplishes and I think everyday that if she was in school I would miss all of those "light bulb" moments. I would miss getting to see the joy in her face. I am SO glad we chose this route, even though it seems impossible at times. Anyways, so my sister got her this game for her birthday. Basically she has to finish a 3 letter word by filling in a blank. We played the 1st time cooperatively. She would say the letter sounds and I would basically blend the sounds until she figured out the word. By the second time we played she was blending the sounds by herself and reading the words. I was amazed! Now she got ANOTHER game from a friend and she gets to spell words with the tiles by herself. Today she wanted 3 skittles I had laying on the counter. So I told her if she spelled 5 words she could have the skittles. She spelled RED, TOP, BIB, BUG, and MAP all by herself. On top of that we are working on color sight words that she is "reading".  Can you tell I am proud of my girl? I know many of you reading have genius children who also do amazing things some (no most) at younger ages than Kaylee. Kids they amaze me at what they can do!



**all we needed was a balloon (already had), cardboard (due to my obsession with shoppiong online we have an abundance), newspapers (donated by a friend of my moms), flour (I had 3/4 c left that expired over a year ago in my pantry, but borrowed the rest from my mom. I just cant bring myself to buy that poison, and my dad keeps ridiculous amounts of stuff like that anyways), and paint (already have that too). So far I havent spent a thing on this project and besides the mess, this paper mache thing is going to be a great project. Not only is it super cheap to make it is fun and has more than one skill involved. After we get all the newspaper on we are going to paint it to look like Minnie. I am super excited about this project and cant wait to see how it turns out. I am, however, a bit nervous to see how Ainslee feels about the smashing of Minnie when the time comes. Maybe the candy she gets in return will ease the pain!