Be careful Daddy...

Joe goes out to turn the grill on for dinner. As he's walking out the back door, Ellery says, "don't fall in the hole Daddy."

Why do I do this to myself?

What did you do this evening. Better yet, this last week (and the next few) after your kids went to bed? Me, you ask? Well, I painted, and I'm painting, and I'll be painting. I called my parents to ask what event in my childhood caused me to be so particular and determined to make things difficult for myself. What's wrong with simply painting the room green. Better yet, why not just leave it the plain "builder brown" as I call it? Why would I decide to paint it two colors and then, if that wasn't bad enough, scallop the edge??? But...I have to admit...it is pretty cute! Now if I can just finish the rest of the room before we move again.

My new coffee table book

Grady's Baby Book

He climbed up the entire flight of stairs (all 16) by himself this morning.

Sam's Club

I went into Tulsa the other day with Ellery and Grady. I needed to run to Sam's Club for my monthly stock up. Ellery was so excited to go to Sam's (I could not figure out why.) She kept asking, "when are we going to be there? Why did they named it "Sam's Club"? Are we going straight there? Why is it taking so long?" When we pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car she said, "Mommy, this isn't Sam's Club." I told her it was. She then said, "this isn't Betsy's house." Now I understand why she was so excited. She thought we were going to my friend Betsy's, who's son's name is Sam. Hey, it's his club, right? Lucky guy.

We have a hole in our backyard

Well...too late to turn back now! There is a giant (well, not that giant) hole in our backyard. The girls are hoping they can go swimming this weekend. Too bad life doesn't work like that!

a

Pajama Day

I go outside to get the kids for dinner and Molly looks at me and says, "Mommy, are you still in your pajamas?" I smile and answer yes. She then says, "Gee, I wish I could be in my pajamas all day." The tone in her voice was more like the adult sarcastic version of "must be nice." Now let me explain WHY I'm still in PJs...I got up this morning, fed the baby, got all the kids changed and dressed, made breakfast for the family, put Grady down for nap, then cleaned up after breakfast, wrestled with the girls to go down for a nap, then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out my new vacuum cleaner and then testing it by vacuuming every nook and cranny of the entire house (see post about Dyson) in between fixing lunch, changing diapers, cleaning up, and feedings. So...I'm still in PJs (even now as I type this) because I have spent the whole day taking care of everyone else instead of me. But that's the life of a mommy, right? =)

Dyson vs. Kenmore

Moving from Bellingham to Bartlesville reminded me how lucky I was that our last home had a central vacuuming system. This is something that I dearly miss, but when I had a company come out to give me an estimate, the $3,500 price tag put a hold on having one installed. So, I've been using my old (3 1/2 yrs) Kenmore canister vac. It works pretty well (or so I thought), but does have some quirks and a few broken parts. Last night, Joe wanted to take a family outing to Lowe's (doesn't that sound like fun???) so off we went, to pick up a few things for our weekend projects (he might think twice about that idea next time). Well, I've been looking at some stick vacs and hand vacs because the movers left the base to my little hand vac in Washington...and you can't buy just a charger. Of course you have to walk by the really nice vacuums to get to the piddly little ones....and back by them to get out of the aisle. There at the beginning of the aisle was a shiny new Dyson vac, just begging me to check it out....so of course I did. And while I was looking at this wonderful machine, I happened to notice that they were all 20% off. Hey, I was saving us $110. Actually, I was saving us over $3,000 by getting a simple vacuum, instead of having one installed, so buying a new machine wasn't that big of a deal, right? Well, I bought it...just to take home a look at it for a bit...I can always take it back, right??? I had just vacuumed yesterday with my old machine, so thought I'd take the Dyson for a little test run on the already "clean" carpet. OH MY GOODNESS...I cannot believe how much dust and dirt that thing picked up from my "clean" carpet!!! Disgusting!!! I couldn't just stop with the living room carpet, I had to vacuum the whole house. I won't even tell you how quickly I filled the canister...and I consider myself a pretty good housekeeper. My little Kenmore...GONE! Thank you Mr. Dyson.

Grady's Baby Book

He's started cruising on furniture. He's also giving kisses now....you know, the open mouth gummy kiss, where you just pray that he doesn't spit up.

Naptime?

Two of my boys taking a snooze. A day with the Gallagher kids just plum tuckers you out!

Cabo, the drama, in three parts

Part 1: Getting there

After about 2 hours of sleep, we woke all the kids up (crazy, I know) at 4:30, to drive to the airport in Tulsa. Our flight left at 6:45 and Tulsa is a small airport, so we figured if we get there by 5:30 we'll be ok. That would have been find if it hadn't taken forever at the check-in counter. Upon checking in, we find that, whoops, Joe's passport expires 2 days before we return home (slight oversight), we're late, so we'll deal with that later. When we get to security, the line is way too long for 6:15 in the morning. Like Tulsa is a metropolis??? Those of you who've travelled with small children, know the amounts of stuff that comes with it, so it takes forever to unload everything that has been so carefully and efficiently packed, including a car seat and stroller. Not to mention trying to get the kids to cooperate by getting shoes off, through the machine, and back on, all while what they really want to do is go back to sleep. We're at the part where we're walking through the sensor and I realize there announcing "last call" for the flight. We send Joe running ahead to stop the plane. It worked, because we had a gate agent come grab the baby and escort us (and our accouterments) running through the terminal to make the plane. Right about this time I realized that I have quite a headache. Lack of sleep, stress, adrenaline? Who knows!?! All I know is that because we're flying on a small aircraft and we got there so late, I had to check my carry on, which contains my advil and Immitrex. Not good. What a lovely start to our vacation, right? Then the screaming begins. Grady, we've come to find, is not a traveler. (Luckily there was another baby on board, so we were able to blame the noise on him...come to find out that his parents did the same to us! =) When we arrive in Denver, I run to my suitcase to dig out my migraine medicine, but it's already too late. Full blown migraine with nausea and everything. As we wait for our next flight, I try to make a decision on whether or not I can even fly. When boarding time arrives I asked for a "barf bag" right when I entered the plane. The flight attendant scrambles for a garbage bag (did I look that sick?) and asks if I'm ok to fly. (I wasn't sure if she was asking due to my stomach or the three kids we had in tow?) Well, I survived the flight (barely) and was thrilled to get off the plane By the time we got through customs, my head was bearable (only 12 hours later). My parents flight arrived shortly after ours, so we had just cleared customs when they got in line. The girls were so excited to see them and watched them snake through the line, waving and yelling at them every few minutes. I set their car seats up for viewing, so the girls sat side-by-side in their seats, watching the customs line like a movie. Too cute!!! Anyway, to make a really long story (oh, wait...maybe that was just a really long day?) shorter....we arrive in paradise 12 hours later, quite tired, but ready for a great vacation.

Part 2: The vacation

More to come on this...but I'll post some pics for now.

Part 3: Getting home

Let me start off by saying that I never want to get back on an airplane with my children. The abbreviated version... Joe had to leave early; despite attempts to get his passport extended, the State Department, the Embassy, the Airlines, nor Customs were much help. One agency actually suggested that Joe catch a flight to Tijuana, walk across the border, and catch another flight home...but I won't tell you who told us that because we never had that conversation. (Do you feel safe now?) So, Pat and I were left to travel with the 3 kids. I had planned Grady's feedings with the flight schedules, as much as possible, so of course everything went wrong. Our flight was about 2 hours late leaving Cabo, which left seriously grumpy and hungry kids because by the time we got into Denver, get through the enormous customs line (we were last in line due to waiting for our gate-checked stroller), get our luggage, re-check it to Tulsa, walk/run the 18 million miles from the international terminal to security, get through security (refer to Part 1 for more on security fun), navigate the gazillion escalators and elevators to arrive at the outer-most point of the terminal where (once again) they were announcing final boarding for the flight. During this time, I had wrapped Grady in the Moby, had his car seat in the stroller, Ellery sideways in his car seat holding onto all our documents and my carry on, Molly sitting on the back of the stroller with me dragging the whole load by the handle of Grady's seat, all while holding another car seat in my other hand. Pat was packing our roller board, the girls backpacks, the diaper bag, and a car seat. I'm sure we were quite a site. Besides the fun of getting through the airport, there were the actual flights. As I've determined earlier, Grady is not a traveler, so I won't even go into detail about the crying, not feeding and not sleeping on his part. Over the course of the two flights (3 1/2 hours and 1 1/2 hours), I visited the shoebox bathroom on the airplane no less than 15 times. If one of the girls didn't have to go, Grady was constantly pooping and I was trying to change diapers on my lap. If that wasn't bad enough, I ran out of baby wipes on the last flight (due to the many diaper changes), plus they were low on potable water (the water they use for lavs and coffee...not exactly in that order), so the last few times I was in the lav, I was trying to rinse the soap off of my hands with barely a misting spray of water. The good news...we all made it home. All in all, the travelling was worth the wonderful week spent with our family.

My little cubby

Molly has started in the AWANAS program at our church. Tonight she recited her first four memorized verses and earned her book and her vest. We are so proud of her (and impressed at how quickly she can memorize) I love her eagerness to learn! Ellery is in the puggles group, but they don't start the verses yet. I guess it's more of a playgroup for her. Daddy takes the girls on Wednesday night and I get to stay home with Grady. They have choir practice at the same time and Joe joked with the choir director that I might join just to get Grady into nursery and give myself a break!

Grady's Baby Book

So when I got him from his nap today, he was standing in his crib, smiling at me.

Grady's Baby Book

He pulled himself up to standing...and hung out for quite awhile at the train table! I was shocked! I just lowered his crib because he sat up on his own. Now I have to lower it again.

Hi to my Cornwall small group!!!

Hi Ladies!!! Melissa called this morning and we spoke for a bit. She said that the syrup reminded her of me and had to call. =) (It was SO good to talk to you!!!) I think about you ladies often and wonder how you are all doing. Miss you and our weekly meetings!!! I'm sorry I don't email much....ok, so at all. I know you all understand that life just happens, and before you know it, it's been months. We'll be heading that way in November. Maybe I'll be able to make a Friday meeting???

This is how I exercise

10:05 Put Grady down for his morning nap
10:08 Throw a load of laundry in
10:12 Get the girls coloring stuff out
10:20 Start the treadmill
10:20 Stop the treadmill to get the girls another coloring book
10:21 Start the treadmill, again
10:26 Start running
10:29 Ellery, "Mommy, I want to go pee-pee on the potty."
10:29 Stop treadmill, run with her to the bathroom
10:31 Start running again
10:38 Molly, "Mommy, I have to go poop and I'll tell you when I'm done."
10:39 Molly, "Mommy, I'm done."
10:40 Molly a bit louder, "MOMMY, I'M ALL DONE!"
10:41 Stop treadmill to go wipe a bottom
10:43 Start running again
10:45 Molly, "Mommy, Ellery's pooping"
10:45 Jump off treadmill, chase Ellery down to get her on the potty...successfully...
10:47 Start running again
10:51 Grady is crying in his crib
10:55 Grady is screaming in his crib
10:56 Send the girls in to entertain him any way possible so I can finish
11:00 Grady is screaming in his crib and the girls are laughing hysterically
11:00 Stop treadmill to rescue the baby

So, would that actually count as an hour long workout??? Sounds good to me! Now I can skip tomorrow.

Typical

I'm in the kitchen cleaning up or cooking (or doing whatever it is I do that seems to trap me in the kitchen all day) and Molly asks where her footy-jammies are. I reply that they are in the dryer, and ask Joe to go grab them out. He goes into the laudry room and yells, "hon, they're still wet." I ask him to set the drying for a few more minutes, thinking they're probably just barely damp. I hear him punching buttons and then he asks how to turn it on. (All this as I'm walking that direction because in the back of my head I'm wondering if he even knows how to work the dryer.) Well, I enter the laundry room to see him crouched over the machine studying it. The rest of the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Honey, what are you doing?

Joe: Trying to turn on the dryer.

Me: Really, the dryer?

Joe: Yup

Me: And that would be where?

Joe: Right here.

Me: Hmmm, but you know that's the washing machine, right?

Joe: Oh (pause) I was wondering why the clothes were so wet (grinning).

Ellery doesn't want to wear diapers anymore

She's successfully potty trained...self directed. A bit different than with Molly and a few more accidents, but we're done.

Here we go...

I just handed over a deposit check and a signed contract to start the pool. "The pool guy" as the girls call him, just painted an outline in our backyard. I'll be taking pictures of the progress. Finally...and home improvement project that we're NOT doing ourselves!

Grady's Baby Book

He's mobile. He's crawling. Not very fast yet...but he's moving! Now I have to get new gates for the stairs! =)

Grady's Baby Book

Eating applesauce

Ellery's whiny face

This is what we see a lot of lately. But she's still so cute, I have a hard time taking her seriously. She wanted me to take a picture so SHE could see what her whiny face looks like.

Imagination

I am so impressed with the natural creativity and imagination that children are born with. Some days I think my kids have way too many toys...OK, so most days I know this because I'm the one always picking them up. Well, they proved to me that they can make "toys" out of just about anything. Tonight was the first night that my bread machine failed me. (I guess it could have been user error, but I doubt it.) We have pizza night every Friday night, so as usual, I put the ingredients in the bread machine to make our pizza dough. (Side note: it is so easy and SO much cheaper then delivery!) When I went to pull the dough out...it was just not right. I didn't have a backup plan, so we all jumped into the car and went out. Joe suggested we try a new place. They sat us in a secluded corner (What? Walking in with 2 small kids and a baby? Did they think we were going to disturb their patrons?) and left us to look over the menu. The adult menu. The adult menu without a kids section. No crayons, no paper...what is this? A nice restaurant??? Anyway...the point...the girls had unwrapped all the forks (for the mom's and dad's), had made beds and pillows out of sugar packets and napkins, and were saying goodnight and tucking them in. Then waking them up and doing it all over again. It was adorable! And creative. And, as it turns out, a great substitute for the paper menus that you can color on.

Who wants to go to the ER...with all 3 kids?

Short version: Molly has stitches...again.

Long version: The girls were both dressed up in their ballerina costumes (see prior post) and happily spinning and dancing away to the music. I was talking on the phone (Jessica, if you read this...this is why I hung up so suddenly!), when all of the sudden both girls started crying, well, screaming really, the scream-cry that as a mom, without even seeing them, you know its bad. Yup, around the corner comes Molly with her hands up to her face, with blood dripping between her fingers. Ellery was holding her head. Without even asking, I already knew what had happened. (Sidebar: later I came to find out they didn't exactly "spin" into each other as I originally thought, it was more like they were running at each other.) So...I grabbed the first kitchen towel I could find to mop up the mess on Molly's face and find out how bad it actually was. Then I went for the ice pack and the phone, dialed Joe and told him to meet me at the ER because I was taking Molly in. I had to find clothes for the girls (it's 20 degrees out), jackets, get Grady in his seat, put my shoes on, find my purse and keys, get the kids all buckled in...all in about 34 seconds. Well, on the way to the ER, I realized I hadn't exactly told Joe what happened, only that we were going, so I called him again to tell him what happened. (Through the phone I could hear him running to his car, which is parked about a half mile from his office.) Well, we all arrive at the ER, check in and wait, and wait, and wait...finally get called back, then wait, and wait, and wait some more. The doc comes in, takes a good look at her and a few minute later they strap Molly to a "papoose" board (he called it a surrogate mom) and started the stitching. She did fantastic. Not a tear, not a complaint, nothing...she was a total trooper. We are so proud of how brave she was. So, now her beautiful little face will have two scars...one on her forehead and one above her lip....which happens to match the one I have on my lip. Hey...must run in the family!

Note to self

After feeding Grady carrots (or sweet potatoes, or squash, or fill-in-the-blank), not a good idea to put him down on the carpet...unless I'm in the mood to clean the carpet, too.

Footy-jammies

Molly would live in these if she could...in fact, she kind of has since she got these for Christmas. Ellery could care less if she's even wearing clothes, so we're lucky she's dressed. And Grady...well, these are my favorite jammies for him right now and he'll soon be too big for them. I just happened to have them all together this morning before getting Molly ready for school, so snapped this shot. As you can see, Ellery's in the "can't remember how to really smile" phase and then doesn't Grady look oh-so-comfortable?

Grady's Baby Book

He sat up on his own today. He also is up on his hands and knees and rocking...and trying so hard to crawl.

Our Screech owl

Have you ever heard a screech owl? I'm not sure that I have, but I'm guessing I might know exactly what one sounds like. Grady's latest is this screechy-scream, but not in a bad way, per se, in a hey-everyone-listen-to-what-I-can-do kind of way. Well, as usual, I pull him into bed with me to nurse at some point in the wee hours of the morning, but this morning, I was rudely awakened at 6:00 a.m. to this awful noise (awful in an oh-he's-so-cute-but-I-can't-wait-for-him-to-get-through-this-stage kind of way), like a screech owl beside me....which lasted for an hour. I actually dozed of in between screeches, if you can believe it. Anyway, at 7, I finally figured out that I wasn't going to get much more sleep, so plopped him back into his bed, where he promptly fell fast asleep. Hmmm...can anyone say Ferber? It's time...

Grady's Baby Book

He ate sweet potato's today.

Another one about Grady

I have to laugh at this...I'm nursing (maybe TMI?) and Grady's starting to bite. Apparently he hears "NO" come out of my mouth a little too much, because it didn't even faze him. He just looked over at the girls to see what they were doing.

Kids Day Out (read: Mom's free day)

They have a wonderful program down here in the South...I can't believe it hasn't spread all over the world...its call Kids Day Out (or Mom's Day Out depending on the church). One day a week, for 4-5 hours, you drop your kiddos off, and get a few hours to yourself. It cost some money, but who can put a price on sanity? (It's about $12 a week per kid...so really, not that much! =) Well, I drop the Gradinator (as Silly Uncle Jimmy has named him) off this week for the the first time. I've been dropping Ellery off since we moved here...we call it her "preschool" so she feels a like a big girl, but this is a first for Grady. I'm usually racing back from drop-off to get Grady down for a nap, some days I'm lucky if I can run a quick errand. Anyway...I had a lot of little errands to run, so figured I'd try it once. Big mistake, cuz now I'm hooked! =) I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked, but I made a little dent. Partially because I got an early call letting me know that he hadn't slept nor had he taken any of the bottle that I'd sent with him. Oh well, we'll try again next week...

We are in trouble...

I walk in to our master bathroom last night and happened to glance at the trash because I noticed something funny in there. At closer look...hmm...could that be....what? Molly's dinner? I then walked into the living room so that Joe could give me the logical explanation of how it got in there. After all, he gave the girls a bath after dinner...maybe Molly was just finishing up on the way to the tub and didn't have time to finish. So this morning, I ask Molly how the tortellini got into our garbage. Of course she had no idea. Well, after we had the "lying" discussion, she fessed up that she didn't want me to see her throw it away in the kitchen, so she put it in our bathroom. She's 4 1/2 years old and already scheming! What's next. Wait...maybe I don't want to know.

Grady's Baby Book

He slept through the night, twice in a row. I mean ALL night...no feedings...no wakings...7 to 7. Now, if only I could get in bed earlier maybe I would sleep through the night, too...instead of just through the early morning! =)

Grady's Baby Book

He ate pureed carrots today. Homemade even. Surprisingly yummy. Yes, I taste everything (even medicine) before I give it to my kids.

Ellery and the potty (caution, contains potty talk, read at your own risk)

Ok, so now we leave her naked for a bit when she gets out of the shower or bath. When she's naked, she'll go pee-pee (such an adult word) on the potty (there's another one), but not when she's wearing a diaper. So, while attempting to potty train, naked happens around here a lot. Apparently this was one of those nights and she used her little potty a couple of times, under Joe's "supervision" as I was upstairs working. Well, I ran down to put something in our closet and walked in the bathroom and just about got knocked over with the aroma wafting out of the bathroom. I'm thinking whoa, the toilet must have exploded...but no, there's a giant poop in her little potty which sits right in the middle of our bathroom. The funny thing...she didn't even tell us! Even more funny, Molly (keeper & teller of all things bathroom) didn't tell us!

What is that sound???

I'm chatting away on the phone with one of my dear friends from Bellingham, starting up the treadmill to get my exercise in for the day, (yes, I'm multitasking....you have to do that when you have kids =), when I hear this noise. Grady is sleeping in the crib...so its not him. The girls are in the playroom with me, although they've stopped playing and are looking at me inquisitively...so its not them. What in the world happened to my treadmill, I'm thinking? I stop walking (yes, I'm still on the phone) and listen...hmmm...great, now its broken. I pull the safety plug so it stops, yet the noise continues getting louder and quieter, louder and quieter. OK, so now I get off the phone to investigate. It's not the girls, not the treadmill, not the house alarm, not the smoke alarm. They're doing a lot of building in the neighborhood, so what? are they grinding stone??? Should I be worried? The girls are. They're following me around the house asking what the noise is and right now, I can't give them an answer. I look out the window...well, the tornado alarm is spinning and when it faces us, it seems to match the with the volume of the noise. It's a relatively nice day out. It's January. Is this really happening? Joe's not answering any of his phones, my neighbor's not home, none of the construction guys seems to be running for shelter, so why is my heart racing? Well, at least now I know what the tornado siren sounds like. If I watched any kind of TV other than Dora and the Backyardagains I might have known they were testing today. Lucky for me this was just a test because by the time I figured out what the siren was, the tornado would have been through here and on its way to the East Coast before I gathered up my babies and found shelter!

Grady's Baby Book

He's scooting around and he's putting his pacifier in on his own.

Nanna

Poppy

Pretty ring, dad! =)

Get in line

I'm in the kitchen pulling out sippy cups for the kids' morning milk. The girls are under my feet like little birdies getting ready for mama to feed them, but instead of the "chirp, chirp, chirp" I hear, "Mama, I want milk mama. Milk please Mama" from Ellery. Molly, who was there first says, "Get in line Ellery."

Molly's first snowman

No more babies...

...or so Molly tells me today. "Three is enough." Then she looks at Joe and says, "Don't put any more babies in mommy's tummy." OK...so...one less conversation we'll need to have with her! =)

Why in the world do I do this to myself...every year???

I love to be crafty and make things. Like I really have the time? Wrong. But I enjoy it....well the idea of it...the buying of the supplies...the starting of the project...but halfway through I'm wondering what in the world was I thinking!?!? Mixes for friends and neighbors, little scrapbooks for family, pictures and frames. I'm even knitting Grady's stocking, which is what I should be doing right now if I'm really wanting to have it finished by Tuesday morning. Next year (yes, I say this every year) I'm going to start much earlier, like April. That way, I might...just might...have everything done in time to really enjoy the holidays!

Solids

We started solids. Well, watered down rice cereal can hardly be called a "solid" but it's not breast milk. This is a bit earlier than I've done in the past, but I'm hoping for some extra help in the reflux area. I've heard that solids make it a little easier, so we gave it a try. The first try it was pretty runny and since we've been doing the Prevacid through a syringe for a couple of months now, I figured he might get the whole rice cereal thing pretty quickly. Not so much. Most of it ended up on the bib and what actually went down to his tummy, came back up in his spit-up right after I laid him down on the carpet...of course! The second try was a few days later with a much thicker concoction. He ate it all, and quickly! Yesterday, not as good, but he's getting the hang of it. Not really helping him sleep through the night as some people suggest (I've never bought that theory) but he thinks getting fed is really fun and I'm hoping that he'll someday think his highchair is a good place to be.

Ready for school

The girls are having a Christmas party at school today. They got these sweaters in their advent calendar today and Nanna sent the cute headbands. My babies are not babies anymore. I cannot believe how big they are getting.

And we can't forget about this little guy....who has already spit up multiple times before 8:30 in the morning.

Grady Baby

I just went into his room to drop off some clean laundry. He's totally awake (up from a short nap) and playing with the toys in his crib. He NEVER does that, so I'm thrilled. A few more moments that mom gets to herself...

Merry Christmas

Oh what a happy family. What adorable children, right? Well, this year I considered putting the pictures on of what really happend. The girls wrestling around....Grady spitting up....Molly who couldn't figure out how to smile....Mommy (in her jammies) trying to make the kids laugh....Grady crying....Mommy baking cookies to bribe the kids to cooperate...Molly crying to put her dress back on...That sounds more like the household I know! Thank you Betsy (my friend and photographer) for your patience and ever so fast finger on the camera!