Top Five Saturday Laughs 6.30.12

I am happy to report that after today we are finally out of Hand Foot and Mouth Quarantine!  It has been 10 days since Claire's symptoms started and all of her spots are faded and nearly gone.  To celebrate, we are going to our little town's independence day parade.  Claire is actually going to be pulled in her wagon by her grandma (who owns the coolest ice cream truck) while Natalie and I watch.  Later in the evening, we will be going to all the fun activities for kids but skipping the fireworks.  The fireworks are notoriously horrible and with a fireworks extravaganza that grandpa puts on next weekend, I am not ready to keep kids up way to late two weekends in a row.  I am excited to get out the house with the girls.

Since everyone was feeling much more 'normal' this week, we have some good laughs to share.

5.  When Natalie gets excited about something, she will march in place really fast while squealing.  It is quite funny and you can't help but catch her excitement.

4. Claire was being extra silly one night after bath and told me that she was a rapper girl.  She then proceeded to do the most ridiculous booty dance I have ever seen, it was hysterical!  I asked her why she was a rapper and she informed me that it was because she was wrapped up in a towel.  Duh, mom!

3.  I think I have blogged about my husbands obsessive love of the Detroit Tigers before.  One night we were watching the game when he told me that the average life of a baseball is three pitches.  In my major math-geekness, we then proceeded to figure out approximately 243,000 baseballs used in the regular season.  When we got done we couldn't help but chuckle at our combination of his love for the Tigers and my love for math.  And yes, I did just admit to this.

2.  We have spent lots of time playing in the girls inflatable pool during our quarantine time.  One night we allowed Natalie to go in totally naked.  She had a little piddle accident on the deck and I told her that she had gone (trying to get her to remember what it feels like so we can start potty training in the near future).  She caught on to what was happening and decided to squat down every thirty seconds to squeeze out a tiny bit of pee.  She was so proud and would giggle in delight each time!!

1.  I know that Claire's love for the manger scene is something that I have shared before.  She decided to bring it out this week and set it up on her little table.  I was not totally paying attention to her when I heard, "Oh Jesus!" and whipped around in disbelief at what she had said.  I then realized that baby Jesus had fallen off the table.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Remember to check out the laughs from the blog hop hosed by Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles.

Top Five Saturday Laughs 6.23.12

Laughs have been hard to come by in our house the last two weeks.  Both girls have Hand Foot and Mouth - ugh!  So the laughs this week are a compilation of the last two weeks and I only had six to choose from.  I am hoping for a much more laugh filled week next week!!  

As always, I am linking up with Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles and her Saturday Laughs Blog Hop :)  Join us in the fun!!

5.  Claire is officially obsessed with Band-Aids.  She has needed them for every cut, bump or pretend ailment that has plagued her for some time.  With HFM, we have been using them as a coping mechanism and put Band-Aids on all the sores.  I think we went through three boxes this week alone, so I ran to Target one night and bought four different kinds, all of which have a sizable dent in them already.

4.  Natalie loves our dogs, but there is a fine line between petting and pushing.  She was "petting" Molly  when I asked her if she was petting or pushing Molly.  She smiled, shook her head and said "Yeah".  

3. During the summer the girls are watched by my mom and our summer nanny, Miss Grace.  We have the "Dance With Me Baby" (no idea if that is the actual name, but its the song that the thing plays as it dances).  The following is the text that Grace sent me, "Claire was trying to stand the doll up on the carpet but when the doll started dancing it would fall.  Claire kept trying again and again and the doll fell every time.  Claire got a little frustrated (she was probably a whiny mess - so nice of Grace to put it like this) and said, 'Miss Grace, this dolly is being so RUDE.' Ha! Plus, Nati was completely obsessed with the doll for the rest of the day.  We probably listened to that song 50 times!" I love hearing about the fun my kids have while I'm at work!

2.  Natalie was 'singing' into the microphone from the living room while Ryan and I were preparing dinner.  Every time we looked out at her, she would wave at us with one hand while holding the microphone with the other.  It was adorable!

1.  Every night before bed, I say prayers with Claire.  We always pick one person who we are thankful for and the prayer focuses on them.  This week, Claire wanted to say her "thank you God" for Santa since he brings presents.  I think her Christmas list will be long ;-)

Hand Foot and Mouth Strikes Our House

So we have been in quarantine for a week now due to Hand Foot and Mouth.  Since we can't leave the house, we are trying to make the best of it.  

Gooooo Tigers!

We have these very dear friends, Jen and Ben.  We have been friends for a very long time and therefore have lots of memories together.  We stood up for one another in our weddings, vacationed together and had  of our kids within a couple months of one other.  Now we can add that we all took a day off of work and traveled to Comerica Park to enjoy a day game!  We had so much fun!!

We sat right next to the Tigers dugout, the seats on the isle (thanks again guys!).  A great view of the field and a great view into the dugout - we got to see everyone!  The best part is that the Tigers won!  The game got a little rough at the end, but they pulled it out to beat the Indians 7-5 and avoid the sweep.

We have lots of photos from the day, but here are just a few of my favorites:

Love these two!

Photo op before the game

Yummy!

Jennifer hard at work

The view from our seats - no zoom!

The Tigers got off to a great start

Our view into the dugout

Natalie's Hair Dilemma

Both of my girls are obsessed with hair, they both hold my hair for comfort.  Claire is getting away from this and Natalie has started to play with her own hair.  This is great since she uses it to self-soothe, however not so great when it comes to keeping ponytails (aka - sprouts) in her hair.  Her bangs are getting long and she has the wonderful growth pattern that makes her hair grow forward.  Right into her eyes.  

So the simple solution is to put in a bow, barrette, clip or sprout.  All of which are adorable on her, but none of which she will tolerate.  

She pulls bows, barrettes and clips out immediately.  Sprouts last a little longer since I use those tiny rubberbandish holders, but most days they're out during nap time at the very latest.  She just will not keep them in!  

Any tricks, tips or suggestions? 

Goodbye Pacifier!

When Claire was a newborn, I would plead with her to take a pacifier with absolutely no luck.  She wanted the real deal - all the time.  After our very troubled beginning of our breastfeeding journey, I finally got my supply up and she didn't want to eat all day and night.  At that point, I was okay with the fact that she didn't want a pacifier, one less thing to break her of down the road.

Fast forward 8 months, Claire had been sick on and off for two months.  We just couldn't get her well.  We started the Daniel Fast with church and I was fasting and praying for an end to our medical drama.  About week and a half in and Claire was admitted to the Helen DeVos Children's hospital for RSV and double pneumonia.  We were there for an entire week, but she was getting better.  It was during this time that the pacifier came back into our lives.  Claire had started to self wean during the day and I really didn't want to go backwards so the pacifier came to my rescue.  Ever since then her an 'Paci' have been an item.  After she turned two, Paci was only allowed in the car, during her breathing treatments and in bed (or laying on the couch if she was sick).  That slowly went down to only at bed and nap.  She hasn't had a pacifier at daycare this entire year so I knew it was just a matter of time until we got rid of it permanently.

I had settled that when she turned three that would be the end of the pacifier.  Of course, she came down with croup and I just couldn't do it when she was sick.  Finally, we got her well and mentally prepared to take her to Build-A-Bear so that we could sew the pacifiers into an animal of her choice.  Wouldn't you know, the store was being remodeled and closed.  Ugh!

I found out recently that Build-A-Bear was reopened so we started mentally preparing Claire for another try.  We had an open house to go to on the other side of town near the mall where Build-A-Bear is located so I asked her Saturday morning if she wanted to go and give up her pacifier for good.  She was very excited about going so we seized the moment and headed to the mall after naps.

I was so proud of her, she did fantastic!!  She was thrilled to be there, she picked out a cat and headed to the stuffing station. She was a little shy, but pushed the pedal to fill the cat part-way full of stuffing.

Then came the big moment, with only a little bit of hesitation she put all the pacifiers into the kitty.  She was a little shy since the bear stuffer was a man - she's quite shy around men for some reason.  I was so glad that we had avoided the meltdown!

Then came the all important bath - really four baths and picking out the clothes.  Since Paci Kitty is essential at bedtime, she got a set of purple pajamas.  A couple bows later and we were on our way home.

I was a little nervous how the night would go.  However she did her breathing treatment without fuss and other than playing a little longer than normal since she had a stuffed animal in bed she went to sleep without any whining.  

On Sunday, the little stinker found another pacifier that did not make it in Paci Kitty.  She said that she needed her kitty to snuggle with and the other pacifier to have in her mouth.  Ryan was quick on his feet and suggested that we wrap it up for babies that don't need pacifiers and really need them.  She agreed and we put the stray pacifier in a box and wrapped it up.  Of course, she wants to come with me to drop it off to the babies in need - looks like I need to set something up at the church nursery.

I am so proud of her!  I can't believe how big my girl is getting!!

Top Five Saturday Laughs 6.9.12

Happy Saturday!  June has started off as a very eventful and fun month for our family.  We've had lots of wonderful celebrations with a wedding and graduation open houses, we took the day off to go to the Tigers game with great friends.  We are quite busy, but enjoying it very much.

This week our laughs are primarily about Claire, I guess she was a little extra silly.

5.  At the girls daycare, there are two kids that have casts on their arms (there are only six total kids!).  Miss Cynthia is always telling the kids that they have to be calm around the kids with casts so they don't get hurt.  Claire skinned her knees, so she instructed us to "be calm around her since she has scabs."  She then proceeded to get a cane to help her walk.

4.  Claire loves to play detective.  She gets her magnifying glass out to look for clues.  However, instead of detective, she pronounces it, "protective."  I have to hold in the chuckles every time!

3.  Natalie has learned to make the pucker kiss noise.  Before she gives us kisses, she makes the sound and we laugh.  She loves knowing that she's funny so she continues to do it, we love it!

2.  Claire was playing with my mom throwing things around and something landed on a high bookshelf.  My mom is only 5'3" so she often can't reach things up high.  She was able to reach the item in peril and Claire was so excited.  Claire told her, "Grandma, you're getting so tall!"

1.  Ryan plays slow pitch softball and when we are able, we go to his games.  Often we have to miss them since they start too close to Natalie's bedtime.  This past week we were able to go to the early game and Claire wanted to bring a trophy for Daddy, since "He will be the best Tiger on the field."  So sweet!!

Like always, I'm linking up with Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles.  If you have a funny post, come link up!

Top Five Saturday Laughs 6.2.12

What a fast moving week!  I know it was short, but it really went quickly.  I have seriously neglected my blog lately and I do feel bad about it, however I can't seem to find the time.  Work is really getting busy so the majority of my computer time at night is now filled up with work that I couldn't get to during normal business hours.  I am going to try to make a point to blog more often since I am horrible at keeping a baby book.  I didn't write a laugh post last week, so I had two weeks of laughs to choose from which makes this post especially hard to write with all the laughs to choose from.

5.  When Natalie goes to bed, I put 3-5 pacifiers in bed with her.  If she can't find one quickly enough in the middle of the night she wakes up super angry  Lately she has gotten in the habit of throwing all but one pacifier out of her bed before she falls asleep. I have to crawl in there to put the rest in her bed before I go to sleep.  I have to give her credit, she doesn't throw them all out since she wants one to lay down with.

4.  I had to go to the doctor this week.  On the way to the exam room, I heard an alarm coming from my purse.  I thought it was my panic button and then realized that my car makes the alarm not the key fob.  After some digging to find the source of the sound, I discovered Claire's Mickey Mouse key-chain that makes all kinds of different noises.  The nurses and I got a good laugh out of that one.

3.  Whenever Natalie gets fussy, Claire puts her finger to her lips and shushes her.  Natalie has now started shushing everything, but she puts her finger up her nose!  I crack up every time and she does it over and over since she knows it is funny.

2.  We had to run some errands as a family last weekend.  I was driving since Ryan hates driving my car (which gets the best fuel economy). We were traveling through a strip mall complex that connects several different businesses.  It isn't the most direct route, but allowed us to avoid a busy street. From the backseat, Claire was yelling, "whoah" with every curve and turn.  As we were approaching out destination, she told me that "you drive crazy mommy, I'm getting dizzy!"

1.  Our dog Boomer is a huge baby of a dog.  He is scared of everything (he hides under the bed when someone sneezes and thunderstorms are a full on panic attack).  In addition, he cries every time we leave the house.  We were going outside to play one evening after dinner and Boomer started whining as soon as we started getting shoes on.  As it is customary, Ryan sternly said, "Boomer" to try to get him to be quiet.  Claire follows up with, "Boomer, knock it off!"  The best was when Natalie, exclaimed, "MER!"  It was so funny!

I am linking up with Melissa from The Mommyhood Chronicles, if you have a funny post, make sure you join in on the fun!