Oh what do you do when you're stuck inside?

Ok, this is the last post mentioning being sick with SF sice we're all done with that now, but I just saw a few more pictures I thought I'd post. Like this one of Phoenix - by the end of the first week he kept lifting up his shirt to take his temperature with the thermometer.







And being home gave us time to finally do some projects around the house (ok, one, but that's more than usual). It was fun watching Cash be so excited to learn the manly art of power tools.





















And all I can say is thank heavens for the Bookmobile - the mobile library van that comes to the park right in front of our house every Saturday. The kids came home all stocked up with movies for the second long week at home. It's so great though - we order books, movies, new releases - whatever and they bring it right to us. I don't know if it's a common thing elsewhere, but if you don't have a bookmobile, you are missing out!









And as a last resort for those home-bound or rainy day activities, you can always move your couch and let your children entertain themselves with all the treasures they find under there. We started to clean it up, but everyone was so occupied we decided to leave them be.







Ok, he happened to stuff popcorn that he found under the couch in his mouth right as I took the picture - this wasn't encouraged. Even I have my limits.

Get me out of here

I don't know what much there is to blog about when you haven't left the house for two weeks. The new fall tv lineup since I've pretty much watched everything? It's bad - even the babies just come hand me the remote now first thing in the morning. No one has had the energy to do anything else.

Or I could discuss the fact that I'm going NUTS. I am DYING to get out of this house, and so are my kids. Thank goodness I've never had to be on bed rest. I can feel my body wasting away. And quite possibly my brain too. Who knew that two weeks of laying on the couch wasn't really all it's cracked up to be? Especially not in this house where I've learned that the couch is by far the most dangerous place to be. Lying down on the couch is even worse as it is an apparent invitation to be jumped on, lunged at and body slammed. (You're pretty lucky when they just sit on you, as in this picture). In the past two weeks I've probably used an ice pack about 6 times on myself alone trying to prevent black eyes, avoid bruised foreheads, help what I honestly worried was a broken nose; I thought I may have either broken a rib or ruptured my spleen (ok, that was probably a little dramatic Ryan tells me), and my legs are covered in bruises. These kids are taking years off of my life, I'm sure of it.

I'm sure this is also no doubt compounded by the fact that they ain't no lightweights. At the doctors appointments last week we discovered the twins are now pretty much off the charts in the 100th percentile. Let's just point out that Cash, who is three, weighs 34 pounds. Ashton, who is 18 months is 33 pounds. And our "skinny" baby, Phoenix, is 31. Although at 31 pounds he was still 95th percentile. And they were over 35 inches which was also 100th percentile. They are GIGANTIC. Ryan and I always joke about how Cash got his body type and the twins got mine. Ha ha. (Except we aren't really joking - in case I need to remind you):













Anyway, as crummy as everyone has felt, at least Ashton can still cut a rug. Yes, his dance moves continue to improve. I think we have a previous video on here of Itsy Bitsy Spider dancing with some good shoulder rolling - here's his latest moves.

Down and out

Well it didn't take long to have a whole family full of swine flu, but at least we've got medication and seem to be surviving. This has pretty much been the view here over the past few days:



















Well, for everyone but me, it seems. I've actually had less napping this week than I do under normal circumstances! Everyone is just so miserable it seems that every time I lie down someone starts crying.

When Ryan first stayed home I thought - how nice to have someone else around to help share the workload since both of us are so miserable...until I remembered that's not what men do when they're sick. :) Here's to a speedy recovery for the 4 grumpy boys and me. On the bright side at least the puke has been fairly minimal and Ryan has discovered a real affinity for Hannah Montana.

By the way, we're changing our internet, so not only will we be out of sight, we'll be out of cyberspace for a few days too.

Oink

It's affirmative. Now we're pretty much just waiting for the rest of us to get it.

Maybe the boys will be the three little pigs for Halloween this year. Ha.

The Happiest Place on Earth

I'll admit. When the day started out with pouring rain, I was pretty sure it was going to be the most miserable day on earth. (I know, I'm such a pessimist.) While waiting in the rain for a shuttle to Disneyworld, I could only imagine that rain, plus massive stroller containing all our stuff that was going to get wet, plus wet kids, plus waiting in more lines in the rain was going to be a nightmare. (By the way, the apparition on the left is my sister in her disneyworld poncho.)




Well, I was WRONG!

Thank goodness, huh? Granted, we had our fair share of this:



















(Flailing and uncontrollable tired kids. I'm pretty sure I was not born under one-room family circumstances because I would spend my entire life ornery. I am convinced that those people in the old days (or now) who had to sleep in one room with their whole families are either chronically overtired or else the world's best sleepers.)

And some more of this (trying to manage resistant kids scrambling in every different direction while attempting to look like somewhat composed parents):














But really, is there anything more magical than taking your kids to Disneyworld for the first time? Seeing the wonder and excitement in their eyes:




















(Or shyly hidden smiles, although I know he's excited under there)






















Watching them feel the wind on their face as they fly through the air on Dumbo the Flying Elephant.


Or seeing them mesmerized by It's a Small World.




















Watching your poor child get taken on every single ride because he is just barely tall enough to go but has no idea yet what Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain are:


(Yeah, Ryan insists he had fun, but it looked a little different to me.)


Seeing your husband as excited as your kids:







And with his game face on:



















Watching your kids try to take in the spectacle of the greatest parades they've ever seen with their favorite characters coming to life before their eyes (Cash is a huge Mickey Mouse fan. I think one of the babies few words is even Mickey):























Watching them point excitedly at all the cool things they see on the rides:










Seeing Cash remember the one toy he wanted all day long and even what store had it, then watching him carry it around the rest of the day everywhere we went.

























Seeing your kids so tired by the end of the day that their head keeps nodding around during the firework show.














And even as hard as you work dragging the kids on and off all the rides, of course their favorite parts are just when they get to get out of the stroller and run around!









































And nothing warms my heart like seeing my kids interact with their cousins. Why is it that you just seem to be born with a bond between cousins? It was so fun. Besides the fact that it was sooooo nice having them there. I didn't get a picture, but at the end when we were standing in line for ever waiting for the shuttle home, those boys saved us from utter meltdown by entertaining our kids. People in line were fascinated watching us and commenting on how well everyone in our group helped out. Then they were all trying to catch a glimpse to see what magic Dawson was working on them (holding Ryan's ipod touch with a baby movie on it, which actually captivated the attention of anyone surrounding us, adults included). It was pretty funny.






































The next morning when Dawson came to our hotel room in the morning, Cash opened the door and exclaimed, "I missed you!" a phrase I've never heard him use and didn't know he even knew!

It was actually even nice that we had the rain. It was lighter than the typical drenching Florida downpour that I'm used to, and I could tell right away those clouds weren't going anywhere, but I realized later on, we would have been wet anyway, so might as well be damp and cooler rather than wet and nasty from the humidity and blaring sun. And it did stop periodically which was nice.

Sorry for the choppy video recap and the tons and tons of pictures, but I guess this is more for me anyway. Who knows if I'm going to get around to scrapbooking anymore.
































































































Maybe next time our kids will be a little more photogenic. :)






Phew.











When we finally made it home (about a 4 hour drive), the babies immediately got on their hands and knees, almost like they were so happy to have their feet on the ground and be out of the car that they were practically kissing the ground!



It was a lot of fun. And a lot of work. I'm so glad we did it! But I wouldn't do it again anytime too soon. :)

Mischief and Melodrama

Two curly-haired twin babies for sale. One named Mischief and the other is Melodrama.









Melodrama is always crying. Frequently flops onto floors, furniture, etc. in weeping and wailing distress - pauses to look up and make sure you're watching, and then continues flopping. Does have a charming smile when he's not wet and snotty from all the crying. May possibly eat you out of house and home.




Mischief is frequently found pulling full cups of water onto the floor, pulling knives out of thin air, finding and ruining every dvd in the house, dumping entire bags of potato chips all over the house while caretaker is momentarily busy, and climbing like a monkey. Has a sweet side in that he is always up in Melodrama's face trying to see what all the crying is for and trying to console him if possible. Has a hilarious cackle.



Even their father has realized that getting home from work early isn't exactly a treat around our house.

If you happen to be in the Orlando area this weekend and would like to pick them up at Disneyworld, I'm pretty sure they will be half price by then.

Oh nine, oh nine, oh nine

What a great date.

Anyhow, the verdict is in.

Survey says: nope. I know, I was expecting to come back here and say I was converted to early morning rising. I was going to say the benefits were overwhelming and I couldn't deny that it was the superior lifestyle. I wasn't sure I was going to say I would keep doing it necessarily, but that I had to admit it was oh-so productive and well, made me feel like one of those "good" moms.

But alas, day one found me on the couch by 5pm in a thoughtless stupor. After an extended time of such behavior, even Ryan was perturbed by my dysfunction and I was begging for bedtime by 8 o'clock. Day two found me standing in the kitchen at 6:30am staring aimlessly into the refrigerator trying to figure out the mixed signals of my confused body. I was hungry. But there is really nothing that sounds appealing at that hour. But I choked down some food and tried to get something started on the computer while listening to the wailing of my baffled stomach trying to digest when it was still wondering why it was awake.

Let's just get the cons out, shall we?

- I really felt I was complicating my life. I know, you would think it would be the opposite, but having alone time, I felt I should be getting done all these projects I wouldn't otherwise be doing. None of them were successful. I'm still undecided about the blog books. I'm still refusing to believe that after all the effort I spend getting them formatted the way I want on the blog that I have to go through that all again to make a book. But I tried to start them multiple times. And then I'd still be working on them when the kids got up so I'd throw them in front of the tv with some cereal and try to keep sneaking in to work on more stuff. I didn't feel like a better mom. I tried making videos and tried out all the software we have on our computer, tried to download some others, and took a long time realizing I didn't have a really good program I felt like working with yet. So that was another dead end. So then I just felt like I was wasting a lot of time, effort and patience trying to get into stuff that I wouldn't have been doing if I'd just been, well, asleep.

- I ate more!! This was frustrating. If you eat breakfast at 6:30 rather than 8:30 or 9 like I usually do, you're starving by like 10am! So then anywhere we would go, I'd be sitting there rooting through the diaper bag and snarfing down all the kids treats, looking like a total pig in front of all our friends. So basically I felt like I was adding in at least another meal and all those extra calories that I wouldn't have been eating if I was, well, asleep.

- Having realized early on that my body just doesn't function for exercising in the morning, I'd still plan on exercising at night, only to find my energy totally depleted and my mind frantically wanting to just get to bed already. So I'm pretty sure that overall I exercised less than I usually do.

- I don't know, by the end I felt like I was just wasting time; like I was up just for the sake of being up. And I never waste time. I like to be efficient. And sleep is definitely on my list as an efficient use of time. Especially when all my projects dead-ended and I'd be cursing being awake on those rare days when the kids actually sleep really late. What in the world was I doing up??

- BUT. We must be fair and include the pros. Or pro. I will say it was much more pleasant waking up to kisses instead of cries. My children never wake up happy, and it does start the day off on a much better tone not to feel forced awake by screaming. Ryan made good on the romance and I was awakened by kisses every morning (well, however romantic morning-breath kisses can be), and got good hugs before he left for work. It was almost even worth it just to watch him triumphantly flipping on light switches everywhere he went just because he could. Almost worth it. Yeeeeahhhh, it feels a little bad saying he didn't win though. :)

Although now I'm wondering what I've done to myself - starting next week we will have stuff to be to at 9am 4 mornings out of the week. Gasp. I'm pretty sure we've never made it anywhere by 9am! I'm really excited though that someone I know has decided to do a little preschool for the kids for three hours, two mornings a week. Exactly what I was looking for! So that will be great. And then we just found this little sports activity morning that Cash is going to do with one of his little buddies that I'm really excited for. And then we have playgroup the other morning. And now I'm a little worried - isn't this my last year before I actually have to get the kids up and somewhere - for the rest of my life?? Kids go to voluntary pre-K here at age 4, so Cash will start that next fall 5 days a week, and then every day from then on out I have to get up and get kids out! So we'll see what I think after next week - I'm not sure I can hack it, and my sleeping in may be done with anyway.

And yes, Ryan, I do have greater appreciation for your long days. Thank heavens we both don't have to have days like that, huh??

Suggestions

Ok, in all my early-morningness, I've been trying to make my blog into a book. Has anyone else done this yet and what website or software did you use? Please? I've started one on about 5 different sites and have thought each one is going to take a lot more work than I was hoping for. Why can't it just print it out exactly as I have it laid out? All of them I'll have to go through and re-format - when they pull in my blog none of the pictures are near the text where I'm discussing it, etc. Can I just go to a printing place and just print the thing out exactly how it is and bind it? Or then do I have that side stuff showing up on every page (like the archives and stuff). Please someone tell me you've done this and that it doesn't have to be hard. That's why I thought blogging was supposed to be easy - so you could journal and scrapbook and just print it out. I don't want to go through every page and have to reposition it all! Thanks.

The experiment

Ok. I've been thinking I would do this for the last three weeks and I haven't been able to make myself do this yet. But today I did. My challenge (ok, there are about 90% of you that do this anyway, so don't laugh), is that I am going to get up at the same time as Ryan for a whole week. But for those of you who understand (or share, Sarah) my love of sleep, you'll feel my pain. He gets up at 6 or 6:30am - and let me tell you - I can't even remember the last time I voluntarily got up that early. Probably the mission. I HATE mornings. I LOVE sleep. But, I've been thinking for a while I should try it. In the past Ryan has mentioned how he would like it if I got up with him, or asked why don't I get up when he does. Well, because - why on earth would I voluntarily get up before my children?!? Are you nuts?!?

So I'm going to bite the bullet - but that is why I'm only committing for one week. I make no guarantees beyond that. I was actually going to start on Monday. And the two Mondays before that. :) But come Sunday night, I just couldn't face the idea. It seemed absurd. But this morning the kids got up at 6:15 (for a bottle and then went back to bed). And I stayed up. Ok, ok. I got back in bed and tried to make the idea go away. But then I finally got up. I'd actually had a good night's sleep, and that's kind of rare (and the major reason I hate getting up in the morning - it usually takes me hours to fall asleep at night, so wish me luck). And Ryan didn't have a good night's sleep last night (I know because at 3am he was up with Ashton, then when he came back to bed he tried to hug me and got swiftly rejected), so that means at least tonight I know we'll be going to bed early.

So this morning I exercised. I'm not sure that's my calling in life, to be a morning exerciser. I'm just too lethargic in the morning and feel like I could accomplish what I accomplished at night in much less time. So we'll see. Maybe I'll try to work on all the scrapbooks that are piling up. Maybe I'll try to start organizing all the movies we've taken and never strung together or done anything with. Maybe I'll read the scriptures in the morning. Who knows, the possibilities are endless. Although I have to keep myself in check realizing that it's not that much more time in the day so I can't expect miracles, and often someone is up by 7:30 for the day anyway.

I'm not really sure why Ryan likes the idea. Today he said it was nice having someone else up, that it wasn't so lonely. I don't know what the big deal is - I'm up late by myself every night and I don't seem to mind. I mean, really, it's not like I'm going to be standing outside the shower waiting to hand him a towel or walking around the house tidying up after him. But for some reason Ryan has even said it would be romantic. And since I frankly never put the words "romantic" and "Ryan" in the same sentence, this is something I've just got to see.