Injuries

A is missing half of his fingernail.  The rest will soon follow.  Here is the story:

Last week I gathered the kiddos for a fingernail cutting party (sounds fun, no?).  First J, then N, and lastly A.  He did fine with his first 8 fingers, wiggling and squirming, but nothing out of the ordinary.  However, when I got to this one (his right hand ring finger), he would not let me cut it.  I had to hold him down to let me finish the last 2.  While cutting, I saw that it was a little yellow and blue.  So I've kept my eyes on it.  Ummm, Monday I saw that the nail was coming off.  After a quick call to our personal medical advisor (read, Grandpa), we trimmed it.  While trimming, I learned that it was off all the way to his cuticle.  So we've been trying to keep it covered with a band-aid, so that the rest of it will not be cruelly torn off.  But A wants nothing to do with a band-aid, so we're struggling.  The sad part is, I HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT'S COMING OFF.  NONE.  I'm sure he cried when it happened.  But which crying time was it?  DH says that I need to get used to it.  He is a boy and boys will be boys. So, he's had a black eye that I have no idea how he got, and now a missing fingernail.  Poor boy!

Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

I've been using this website to find little known and often made up holidays to celebrate with the kiddos.  We don't celebrate everyday, but when there's one that looks like the kiddos would enjoy the celebration, we do something.  So, when I saw that there was an Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, I knew the kiddos would love it.  So, we celebrated Ice Cream for Breakfast Day on the 5th.  In an attempt to make it healthier, we included it with waffles and strawberries, with a side of sausage.  The kiddos really enjoyed it!  (The adults did, too!)  We'll be adding it to our calendar for next year!

Artwork Boards

 I recently finished these artwork boards for the older kiddos.  The boards?  $0.99 "as is" shelves from IKEA.  A's was already blue, even.  Talk about simple.  And now, I don't have random pieces of artwork hanging chaotically on my walls with sticky stuff.  Each kiddo is limited to 3 pieces on display.  The rest of it is 3-hole punched and put into an "art binder" for looking through (A doesn't really care.  So his binder is empty.  He knows it's his, but he won't allow anything to be put inside.  Kind of funny).  When it gets too full, it can be slimmed down (with or without help).  N is very excited about her binder.  And her board, actually.  And in a couple of years, it will be easy to create a board for J - unless I come up with something new by then :).

On Our Lawn

Mid-morning, looking through our window, I saw our side lawn COVERED in birds.  They were busily pecking the ground.  I tried to sneak outside for a picture, but they flew into our neighbors (across the street) yard.

They came back a while later, and I was able to get a few (*cough*) pictures.  I don't know what type of bird they are or what they were so busy eating.  But they were fun to see and fun to hear.  When I opened the door, they were quite loud.  Not individually, but as a whole.

Pasta

 I made PASTA!!!  It took longer than I anticipated, but it was YUMMY!  I'll definitely make it again.  I'll just plan better.  And probably, as I practice, I'll get faster.  I received the pasta  attachment for my kitchen-aid as a gift, and this was the first time I tried it.   First Quiche and now Pasta.  Maybe I should become a chef...

Winnie the Pooh Day

To celebrate this Winnie the Pooh Day, I planned well.  We had chicken nuggets with HONEY for lunch (N even caught on to the significance of that!).  J was dressed in a yellow, WINNIE THE POOH outfit.  I checked out a Winnie the Pooh movie from the library as a special afternoon surprise (movie watching is pretty scarce around these parts).  Turns out you have to UNLOCK the DVD while at the library.  Oops!  All great plans can go awry.  Luckily, Finding Nemo was on the shelf and is a favorite.  So there wasn't too much disappointment.  And N says that we can check out a Winnie the Pooh movie for Winnie the Pooh Day in February.  We'll see...

Today

While eating chicken nuggets and French fries, A got ketchup on is sock.  How?  I have no idea.  He had a shirt, pants and even his shoes on.  But he got ketchup on his sock.

While using a block as cheese and an old yogurt container as a grater, N was a "restauranter". She had a "restaurant tag" and everything.  The rest of us were lacking this most important accessory and so couldn't help to grate the cheese.

We finished making our Animal Cracker Cookies.  They are adorable but incredibly time consuming.  We'll use the cutters again, but with different dough.

Quiche

I've always been a little afraid to make a quiche.  They sound so fancy and french.  As it turns out, they're very easy!  And they do look fancy.  And they taste great!  This is a picture of my first ever quiche - Apple Cheese Quiche - and it definitely won't be my last!

H1N1

Swine flue sounds nasty.  Like I'm a pig.  An animal.  I have it.  The swine flu.  I prefer H1N1, though that sounds like I'm just a number.  I'm not positive that I do have it, but J does, and I've  had a lot of similar symptoms.  My fever just decided to stick around for a few hours instead of days.  We were in Urgent Care Sunday night for 4 hours, while they ran tests and looked at J.  Yesterday the test results came back and we found out what was bothering our sweet baby.  Then, A woke up from his nap with a fever.  Another one down.  DH took N to get the vaccine last night.  They wouldn't give N a shot; she was too young for their location.  We have to take her to a pediatrician.  DH got his though, so hopefully he won't be the next casualty.  N?  Um, there's a conundrum.  What's a mom supposed to do?  Take out 2 sick kiddos and herself to a dr.'s office, to get the well one a shot so she won't get sick, but the sick ones could make a lot of the well children sick, besides being cranky and uncooperative for the entire outing or stay home and the well one might get sick but the sickies won't pass on their sickness, and they can rest and hopefully get well soon.  I know she needs the shot, but the thought of leaving home in our current situation drives me crazy, let alone the actual doing of it.

Confession

I am a bibliophile.  I love books.  I love buying books.  I love holding books.  I love reading books.  I have my favorite authors: Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Brandon Mull, Nicholas Sparks, Elizabeth Gaskell, to name a few.  I could spend all day reading.  I have done that, on many occasions.  It's harder to do, with three little kiddos.  I've done it, it's just harder.  "Burning the midnight oil" is frequently done.  Books are my friends.

When I was first married, with no kiddos, DH humored me, letting me turn our dining room into a library (we had an eat in kitchen, so we never would have used the dining room).  It was fabulous!  3 moves and 3 kiddos later, a library just isn't feasible.  So, what am I going to do with all of my books?  As I go through the boxes, I'm re-aquainted with so many friends, that I just can't let any of them go.  But I don't have anywhere to put them.  I love my kiddos, but they're not always as careful around the printed word as I would like.  Don't get me wrong, I'm in the process of bibliophile training, and none of them would willfully tear a book (even N, and she's in a phase of tearing and cutting and folding like nobody ever told me about.  Is it normal 3 year old behavior?).  But accidents happen, so I'm not going to move my library into the family room.  Without a designated library, though, what am I to do with them?  I already know the answer.  Leave them packed in boxes.  Stored for the next time we move.  How sad!  My poor friends!